To my mind, they did a terrible job with Groves-Eubank. I personally think they are sitting on a gold mine, they just need to follow Sky's model. Obviously, they have other priorities but a show a week for a month on ITV1, a gloves are off/staredown and better marketing in general and they could do massive numbers. Eubank is hugely marketable to the wider public as well. This isn't a thread to discuss the merits of the event as a PPV, rather what they can do to make it more of a success. They have the ability to do far better sales than BT because they hit a massive audience and it could be better for fans because competition drives quality. At the moment Sky know they can do 5-6 PPVs a year and they will always get 400k-1m buys. The fact they get these numbers has little to do with Matchroom and alot to do with Sky pushing the fight on every channel they have available.
Wheres the best place to advertise? Sky and BT have an advantage in they can stick adverts in the middle of football matches and hit the target audience. Where do ITV hit these people, personally I havent watched ITV in years, its truly dire. Do Keith Lemon fans and people who wonder who Ken Barlow is ploughing really give a damn about boxing?
While I admire your comedic spirit and acknowledge your underlying point, any form of marketing is better than none surely?! Secondly, boxing does good numbers on terrestrial tv and always has. Couple this with Eubank Jnr (given that everyone over the age of 30 knows who Eubank Snr is) and they are able to hit the right type of casual. As a said, they have to wet the appetite by doing some sort of fight camp show which follows both boxers. You don't even need to be a boxing fan to watch that and whack in one of those across the table things as well. Its not like ITV don't have the space for content.
Outside of Good Morning Britain ITV really do lack outlets to promote sports to a mainstream audience. This will do fine on PPV I suspect even with the minimal promotion ITV will give it.
They can advertise this fight every advert break for 6 weeks, do Haye to Haye every day, bring back Richard & Judy for both to appear every day, both appear on ITV News 8 times per day and I would STILL not buy it - even for 1p. No matter what they do - a stale turd is worthless.
Prime time adverts on ITV1 is all they need to reach enough people. My parents watched Eubank Sr in the 90s like half the country did, but it doesn't mean they are going to pay PPV to watch his son just because of good marketing. The only way to get a good crossover audience for something like this would be to show fights on freeview first. I still can't believe they didn't put the Quinlan or Yildrim fights on ITV1. So yeah, I don't think much can be done to boost numbers for an exhibition fight against DeGale. Even if they started putting documentaries out and everyone watched them, it would just lead to people asking why this fight is even happening.
ITV done give 2 ****s really. They got the WBSS for virtually nothing and made money off it by doing virtually nothing.
Haha yeah i can just imagine the 24/7 narrator now 'Degale relinquished his title for bigger opportunities'
Marketing in any business is crucial but let’s be honest boxing is a niche sport ! Sure there are a couple of boxers who perhaps are perhaps mainstream but let’s be honest Degale and CEJ are not in that league! Eubanks Snr lived in a different time and his eccentric behaviour propelled his image , he was an impersonator’s dream but sadly the days of vaudeville have passed. Junior tries to be newsworthy and probably plays the social networks well but most of those types are savvy enough to not pay for content ! This is a decent domestic fight and whilst I have some interest I will not be spending anything to watch it.
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