Let's give BoxNation a chance?

Calzaghe was never huge. Ricky Hatton was huge and a purely sky fighter. Calzaghe would never of been that popular regardless. Some people appeal to the masses and some don't. Calzaghe never did!!

The biggest golfing events are on sky. No cricket is on terrestrial TV and guess what English cricket is doing just fine.

Tennis a major sport? I dispute that. People care about tennis for two weeks of the year.

Darts gets great ratings on sky considering its a sport nobody cares about.

Would James degale be any bigger than he is considering the fights his been in? If the audley harrison debacle proved anything it's that people want to see good fights. Just being on terrestrial TV guarantees nothing.

Look at Andre Ward. Olympic champion, undefeated fighter, never fought on ppv yet his not a star over there.

Naz had everything and was destined for stardom. Someone who fights like that and has that much charisma cannot fail to be a cross over star. Fighters like that don't come around often.

 

No, you're absolutely right, Liger. Boxing went from getting peak views of 20m to less than half a million just through natural attrition in less than two decades. It has nothing to do with being on a premium platform and the attendant lack of exposure.

Tennis, golf and snooker all get no benefit from terrestrial coverage. In fact, everything would be better if every sport went onto Sky.

(This post may contain sarcasm)

 

It costs the TV companies money to buy the fight as well. Boxing has the disadvantage of also being the wrong demographic for advertisers. The people the advertisers want are watching the fight live, not watching it on TV, thus economically it is not viable for ITV and BBC to show boxing anymore.

No, the figures were going down as a percentage, because for the first time people had choices of more than four channels. Football is the only sport since 1990 to increase its share of viewers as both a percentage and as actual people.

Well of course ****** wants to make money, and will make the changes/adjustments needed to do so.

Tennis has a different kind of fan to football and boxing, it makes a lot off of that, and has little to do with this discussion. Reality TV has increased from virtually 0% since 1991, that has more to do with boxing's collapse than Tennis...

I think you are getting a little carried away there. Dave McAuley had all his big fights, from British to World titles shown on the BBC. Many of his fights were thrilling, yet he was never anywhere close to being a household name.

As a rule Boxing has two or three household names in any era. In McAuley's era, that was McGuigan and Bruno; in this era it is Haye and Khan.

SKY was the future 20 years ago, it made its name with Bruno/TysonI. Now a days boxing is a minority sport, one of the bigger minorities, but still a minority. I have yet to see how boxing can function profitable on TV in this era. I do not think BoxNation is the answer, and terrestrial TV and SKY have little interest.

Perhaps it is coming to the point, fans might actually have to go and watch live boxing!:yikes

 

Because people are trying to make the same money as they did back in the 90s. If everyone adjusts their expectations I think it could be better. Hennessey has proved boxing can be profitable on Five.

I don't think BN is the answer either. It's a further decline for the sport's visibility. Promoters should focus on getting domestic shows on ITV, Channel Five, Sky, etc. Specialist channels like BN should focus on international fights that they can turn profit on more easily.

If I had venture capital I would set up my own online boxing channel. All legit high-res streams with an HD quality archive. It can be done.

 

I would like to see all boxing fans subscribe for 12 months.Lets give them the cash and see what they come back with.If they are shite they will rightfully fold.

 

No they are not. They realise that even compared to the 90s, people have more things too choose from to spend their disposable income on. And that income is being squeezed at the moment.

The way to improve boxing, is to remove product from (free) TV. Make the fans come to the fights, and pay a fair amount to watch a show, rather than get it for nothing.

But what is in it for terrestrial TV? Very little to nothing. It is cheaper and financially more advantageous to put reality TV and variety shows on at the times that boxing would be shown. It is a proven formula, unlike boxing.

I do not see the quantitative evidence to back up what you write.

I like and admire your passion, you are clearly smart to boot (which is why I like 95% of this fourm). But no offence, it is 95 to 99% likely that if a formula could be used to make money on this, it would of already of been picked up.

 

Online legal streams in the current market wouldn't be successful because for someone who is a boxing fan who would be interested in a stream they're going to know how to get it for free

 

I also agree that BN is not they way forward. A few years back when Alledgly was showing cards on ITV people started taking about Boxing like they did back in the 80's and 90's, fights got great viewing figures then and even in the stint with ITV last decade. Big fight's should be open to all and not for the select few. There are plenty of digital channels for terrestrial TV to do this. The way ITV managed to do this was to just charge more for advertising space during these fights, like they do during the World Cup for Football. The main thing here is exposure of the sport we love to the masses and unfortunately BN will not do this, it will just make it an even more minority sport than it already is. I personally think the channel will fold within the year (I can tell you that channels come and go every day, some only last weeks and they are the ones that oftern haven't been thought through) - shame really, but I don't think this was thought through, it was a knee jerk reaction, and quite often they don't work.

 

KOman,
What about building fighters? The ITV glory days that people rave about only showed main events and only about six each year! How many Saturday nights on ITV do you think took place in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993? Frank W defected to SKY to make all of the fighters top money - Naz was watched by 9 million but paid 45,000 by ITV! Facts, not inventions.

Adios.

 

Putting on live shows cost a fortune to broadcast though.

 

I agree that coverage on free channels is good for the sport.

From what I remember F.W. said, ITV wanted to spend their money on football rather than boxing.

As for other channels, well Nuts TV was able to show some live boxing but quickly disappeared. And channel 5 have started showing Tyson Fury. But there has been virtually zero interest in picking up international boxing by the free channels. And the rights aren't even supposed to be that expensive!

Throw in the fact that Sky Sports are pretty **** when it comes to the international stuff, and actually, a boxing channel could be the best option. I wish there were lots of free channels just waiting to step in and buy up the rights to international boxing, but I haven't seen much sign of that.

 

When FW went to ITV last decade he showed more than Main Events. For Exampe Joe Calzaghe v Jeff Lacy (3 undercard fights in full), and a few other promotions showcased Amir Khan when he first tuned pro.

However you are right about the 80's & 90's it was main fights only. But these days there are many more channels available to split a broadcast, for example ITV has 4 channels, Channel 5 has a few (along with Primetime, as they are all owned by a company called Portland Enterprises), BBC has 4 channels, and Channel 4 have a few too.

 

Lewis' fights early on were six rounders and Seconds Out showed a few too...

 

I'm not saying the amounts were fair but Naz went from 9m to less than 200,000 viewers for his fights. Yeah, his money went up but if people can't see you, they have no reason to buy into you.