New Eddie Hearn iFilm interview

What?

Endless repeating old football matches/cricket highlights etc doesn't = new content.

Matchroom are involved in lots, poker, bowls, snooker, boxing, darts etc etc. I'd be surprised if it was as much as 10% but they do a lot more than people seem to realise.

 

Dont agree with what he said about terrestrial tv. There clearly is the audience there, past figures have proven that.

 

An interesting video but he betrays a fundamental lack of understanding about the economics of commercial broadcasting around the 16-17 minute mark when he says that boxing was failing because "the numbers weren't good enough".

The economic viability of a commercially broadcast product is not simply about the viewing figures; it's about the pound sterling per capita value of the target demographic. Boxing fails because it doesn't attract a lucrative enough target audience to appeal to advertisers. It's a working class sport with a working class fan base without the disposable income to fritter away on consumer electronics, flash motors and foreign holidays. It also has a seedy image, which needs to be overhauled over a long period of time before it any of the major terrestrial commercial broadcasters would even consider showcasing it again in a meaningful capacity.

 

Was going to say the same thing, he is right about the one show a week approach however; Boxing is not a sport where the majority of people are going to watch every week. Even I don't and I'm a big fan.

 

That's not true. Kugan is never critical of any promoter out there, and no matter which promoter he's talking to, he's always friendly. Look at how well he gets on with Maloney, for instance. He's also not biased towards any set of fighters.

He's very friendly with Hearn but he's not biased at all, I don't think.

 

Haven't seen the video but that seems to be a sly dig at Boxnation.

 

I think that's the point; when the numbers who watch boxing increases, it stops being a minority sport watched only by hardcore fans, and those additional fans are the ones who bring more advertising money.

A jump from 500,000 to 1,000,000 fans isn't an increase in boxing fans, that extra 500,000 are non-boxing fans, who belong to the demographic advertisers want to target. So if the numbers are down, it's not just about the numbers themselves, it's an indication that the only people watching are hardcore boxing fans. Get the numbers up and the additional fans are casual fans, who advertisers want to target.

I see your point - and it's a valid point - but I don't think what Hearn said was wrong. Low numbers mean that only boxing fans are watching, whereas good numbers are far more attractive to advertisers.

 

Maloney seems to have chilled out a bit recently, still waffles on about Lennox Lewis far too much though.

 

I think Hearn know enough about sports broadcasting to be aware of this he just didn't go into in the interview.

 

Good interview. Eddie wasn't in the mood to mess about as much.

 

liked his response to giving other promoters the sky dates.

no **** off.

like to see some co-promotes for some of the big fights out there though.

frampton vs quigg
barker vs murray

:deal

 

Enjoyed that.

Was good to hear him mention working with Ricky for Jazza.

 

I don't know about anyone else but i really enjoy listening to eddie talk business and explaining why fights can / can't be made and learning about some of the problems promoters have to deal with rather than just hearing 'boxing politics' and nothing more on the subject.

I get the impression eddie/ifilm read the forums quite a bit as well, alot of the stuff thats said on here/the banter seems to keep crop up in the interviews.

 

How do ifilm make a profit?

 

I have always wondered this aswell, no way can they make profit from just their youtube videos.