BT Sports Boxing

BT are not going to be overly worried about Viewing figures for a COVID restricted, friday night show In a studio, headlined by 2 unknown fighters to the general public like Arthur & Spelman.

BTs success will be measured against the viewing performance from their Premium fighters like Dubois, Joyce, Frampton and Yarde etc

Eddies show was primetime Saturday evening, straight after the football. I believe the show was also on sky sports mix, not just their premium sports channels. They’ve also got a far bigger subscriber base than BT.

It’s not an equal comparison.

 

Joyce was on the card the other week. Highest profile fighter so far. Also tanked. BT ratings have been shocking.

 

What’s Frank’s next show and when?

I’m happy boxing is back but the next 2 matchroom shows are nextgen in reality.

 

Agreed with this and Hearn has been smart saving a few quid so he can cover the purses on Whyte vs Povetkin. But he’s smart how he does it by putting on Harper vs Jonas which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but grabs headlines by being promoted as the first all British women’s title fight. Frank on the other hand has put shows on with zero interest and no promotion behind it.

 

If you think BT will not be worried about what they are spending their money on in a pandemic with lack of sports and declining subscriber levels your mental.

the issue with Warren is that there is zero promotion beside the ads on BT sport. So far most of Franks bigger names do not sell massive PPVs which is BT’s end game. He has put no thought into the matchmaking. But surely rather than having Frampton fight some complete nobody in a few weeks why not put him in with Cacace ina fight that would not break the bank and atleast draw some kind of audience. That way you could have headlined with Frampton and stuck Joyce and Dubois in a couple of knockovers on the same show and hyped the hell out of the PPV.

you have one of his biggest stars in Tommy Fury who can draw and audience and he’s not even in a fight. It’s mental really.

 

I see those numbers came from Coopinger who isn’t the greatest source. That Sky show was shown on numerous channels, one of which was Sky Mix which you can actually get on Freeview so that would have definitely helped.

Still a huge gulf in numbers but I don’t think that should be surprising really. That first Sky card actually had names people will recognise on it. Which means they’re likely to tune in next week too, although the next two cards are proper garbage

 

Difference is that this is the reason Sky's fighters have a profile. Nothing would have stopped BT doing the exact same thing except the content and cards they had were not worth putting on freeview in the first place.

Think what Dubois and Joyce on the same card on a freeview event would have done for their PPV numbers. Matchroom and Sky always seem to play the end game where as Frank and BT does seem to be slightly seat of their pants stuff.

Theres so many ways to build a show if you dont have the budget of the Matchroom Sky shows. For instance making one of the cards British title fights only. Or a £100k winner takes all four man tournament, Maxwell, Garton, Jenkins and Essowman. Semi's card 1 and final card 2 6 weeks later. Heavyweights only all on one card with a bunch of knockouts to show all over social media the next day....

What they have stuck on is anyone who fancies a fight in a winnable fight.

 

I think your spot on with a tournament for Frank. Them tournaments, even if they don’t have great live viewing numbers they generate excitement afterwards. Look at Rocky Fielding and how he progressed from nowhere after winning prizefighter.

 

Oh I don't disagree. That tournament idea is a great shout actually. People love tournaments as there's a very easy narrative to access. I think he was so obsessed with being the first promoter to have a show that he lost interest in even trying to big it up. Whereas Hearn put his best show on first to drag people in, which was clever. Not having Dubois and Joyce on the same card was just...weird, frankly.

 

Hard to gauge isn't it. Cheeseman and Eggington (particularly the latter) have been around for a bit now. Eggington has been on a PPV bill too, so he certainly has a little bit of name to him. But it certainly feels to me like Joyce was the bigger name. Difference is is that Joyce isn't big enough to draw people in with his name alone just yet, I don't think

 

Yeah, I'm not having Joyce as an Olympian heavyweight going into a fight with Dubois as the sort of guy who should be well behind the levels of public interest for lads like Ted Cheeseman. If viewing figures are as bad as they are even for knockover Joyce fights that's a worry.

Viewing figures should in reality be fairly decent. You've still got something of a captive audience. I still think it comes down to Frank - it's not that people don't care about boxing or aren't interested - I just don't think they know his events are even happening.

Case in point - Eddie Hearn did a 'shamone Motherf**kers' 'oh sorry - are we live - how embarrassing' thing which got out on Twitter the other day. Deliberate or not - who knows, but all of a sudden that ends up trending as a ten second clip which any kid with Instagram/Twitter/Facebook is going to see and laugh at and send to his mates. Frank's equivalent will be him behind a desk talking about a good trade fight with a face that suggests he's just stubbed his toe.

I know plenty of people who will watch boxing if it's on. But Frank's promotion goes to such a small audience how can anyone be surprised when the figures come back so low?

 

Of course BT are looking at financials hard, but in relative terms they are spending next to nothing production wise as these shows are in their very own building and low budget. It’s Frank that is taking the hit on the fighters wages with no tickets sold and all the testing/hotels etc.

Again, last Friday night with 2 Unknown's fighting, I doubt the projections for viewing figures were going to be high.

The same way, that Hearns show this Friday will likely produce low ratings.

BT have Frampton and Conlan on next Saturday- with these 2 I would expect half of Ireland on its own to be watching live or at least on replay. If the figures are below whatever their projections are for this, than I would agree that’s slightly worrying.

Frampton is due to fight Herring for the title - he’s not going to bother with a Cacace type who could be tricky at this stage of his career. If I remember, the 2 of them are friends anyway.

In regards to PPV, I’m not sure we know what BTs plan is time wise and was before the pandemic. Outside of Fury, I believe they’ve only had 1 PPV with Warrington - Frampton. Dubois is their big hope and we will see what happens with him and Joyce when that’s able to happen.

Interms of promotion, obviously Warren doesn’t sell like Hearn - we all know that, but I would also point out that BTs digital views compared to Sky’s are mammoth.

For example, Dubois fights on YouTube, even against bums like Lartey and the Japanese fella last time are all over 1.5m views.

There also a highlights clip from the first studio show which is sitting at over 3.6m views.

These are not insignificant.