Because ITV are ****s who would rather pay a bunch of ****s from essex for a daft show, USA housewives pish or some other awful reality show.
The thing is, it's not that hard to fathom. I've said it a million times - if you put on a good product, people WILL watch boxing. Blokes will get the boys round, chip a tenner each into some beer and pizzas and make a night of it. Deliver rubbish, and they won't watch. KO1, KO1, 60-54, 120-108 type stuff does nothing to make people take interest. I'm not saying we could get back to the Benn, Eubank, Collins and Watson days or anywhere near, but there are plenty of fighters who could do good numbers on ITV given a bit of build up.
for terrestrial TV boxing is a difficult sport to be involved in. it gets big viewers but its tough to get advertisers. also its a very unpredictable sport. cards can get called off, fighters can pull out. the fight can last 1 round and then you have lost out on 6 rounds worth of ad revenue. also the way the sport is set up is complicated. another reason is that fighters....for example Amir Khan will have all his 4/6/8 rounders on ITV and as soon as he fights for a world title he goes to Sky Box Office so there reluctant to invest in fighters. also as a spectical boxing can be hit or miss more often than other sports.
Timing had allot to do with why those fights were so big. If say Carl Frampton fights Scott Quigg for a world title next year, it will be a big fight because hardcore boxing fans will be excited, Quigg & Frampton fans will be excited and Sky Sports will hype it to the max. Benn, Watson & Eubank were all fighting on ITV/BBC throughout there careers, and there were only 4 channels to watch. So the casual fan would watch them, and they would naturally match those fighters together.
Sadly because they'd rather spend their budget on ****wit shows like The Only Way is Essex, Red or Black and Take Me Out. God awful programming that mindless drones will watch religiously rather than meaningful TV like professional boxing or other competitive sports they leave out in the cold. ****ing disgrace there isn't boxing on terrestrial anymore. I pray to God Channel 5 aren't seriously pulling the plug.
Froch didn't get excellent ratings on ITV for the Pascal fight. That's become a bit of a myth on here. Can't remember what the numbers were but it was nothing special.
This is true, even my non-boxing fan mates watch the big fights. It is fickle. The demographics of viewers must be pretty diverse if advertisers are wary of putting money to it. Froch vs Taylor replay did well I didn't say Pascal.
I think if 5 are thinking about pulling the plug they would be foolish at this stage in Furys career especially. He could get a fight with Klitschko before the end of the year. I think they have Primetime as well so they still have the option of moving him there if he gets in some PPV worthy fights.
Googled it. Was replayed on ITV4 at 8.30pm and ITV1 at 11.30pm. Can't find ITV1 figures but it did 479,000 on ITV4.