Sky need to come out and explain this Khan mess

I noticed on ringside a few weeks ago they were really giving props to Froch who isnt a Sky fighter.

 

This was my take on the whole thing which I posted in another thread, but rather than retype each point I'll just copy and paste - therefore it may seem a little out of context but you'll get the gist:

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To be fair to Sky, they haven't rejected the fights you mention out of ignorance - quite the opposite. Khan had already secured a PPV slot in April long before Haye - Wlad was negotiated, so they had to honour this and couldn't show the Haye fight that month. Then over the last few weeks the Khan undercard has fallen apart, leading them to feel that it was by no means PPV worthy. They offered him a slot on regular Sky for less money but he declined and sought a bigger payday else where.

Also, regarding your comparison to the Haye situation, there is a slight difference between fighting for free and fighting for £250k, which is a decent cheque for most fighters, but I take your point - because I'm sure if Haye was only going to get 250k for the first Klit fight then he'd still have pulled out.

The problem with Khan here is that it just doesn't seem like a sensible business decision in the long term and a bit of a financial gamble in the short term, but in his defence it does seem like he's stuck between a rock and a hard place.

His choices were:

- scrap the fight
- accept the 250k and fight on regular Sky Sports
- Take a gamble and try to maximise his income on another PPV TV station

He clearly doesn't want to scrap the fight - so that's the main thing and I think it deserves respect. But as for the rest of the decisions, I can't say I agree with what they have done.

At the most basic level it does seem like a gamble to risk a guaranteed £250k to go to a channel which 99.9% of the population have never heard of, which has absolutely no marketing power in the hope that enough people will buy the PPV to raise more money. I could very much see them not selling enought PPVs even to make 250K.

But for me it shows a ridiculous lack of foresight to take the fight off of Sky. I could understand if Primetime was going to guarantee him the extra million, but it's definitely not the case. Khan potentially has a HUGE unification fight with Bradley in the summer, a chance to make a career high pay day.

Having the McCloskey fight on regular Sky would have brought in a HUGE audience of potential PPV buyers to impress with an exciting performance - not to mention maintaining a good working relationship with the biggest boxing broadcaster in the country. Why not just take the financial loss on the chin this time round and look at the bigger picture?

For me it just sums up the attitude of Khan's team - make as much money as you can, as quick as you can, with no consideration if the future, just like getting rid of Ariza when you're planning to jump weight divisions in the future.

 

good read, fair play.

 

sky is crap anyway, I had it ten + years ago for a year or so. I hate subscription tv. Hate it. The 5 main terestrial tv channels in the U.K are much better anyway, especially the bbc, then you have freeview....

On top of that ppv, even worse. I wish sky would atleast offer their ppv online for people who arn't sky subscibers.

 

What it comes down to is Amir Khan is not a PPV attraction, which is why it always made me laugh when he gave it the 'king' Khan bollocks and how he's the big money star like he's Floyd Mayweather or something.

Sky have played their part in this too by telling him his next fight over here would be a PPV even though he hadn't named an opponent, all that encouraged his team to do was go after an opponent they could get for the least amount of money rather than the quality.

Now they've realised that it was going to flop on PPV with an unknown opponent to the average fan with a poor undercard they pulled it from box office and offered to put it on sky sports 3, Khan's team were not happy with it on SS3 and wanted it on SS1 but Sky won't budge as they have already committed to show Barcelona vs Real Madrid and would have sold the advertising space for that by now.

So Khan's team have decided to walk away a week before the fight and are left with no station to show it on, people have mentioned primetime but as someone pointed out on the British forum are primetime in a position where they can film and broadcast a fight as in the past they've just used showtime's pictures with their own commentary.

If you look at Khan's last 3 fights, the Malignaggi fight was shown on terrestrial tv, the Maidana fight was on PPV but was a part of a huge card originally called GR8 Britain vs the World since it had 8 title fights including Chisora vs Wlad, Cleverly, DeGale, Macklin Kell Brook etc (that changed when Wlad 'got injured') and then this fight now where he's a week away struggling for a station to show it on.

Khan quite clearly isn't a stand alone PPV star and I wonder if this will affect his contract negotiations with Golden Boy who must of thought they were getting another Hatton who the Brits would follow everywhere.

It would also be interesting to see how many tickets he would sell for the MEN against someone like Lamont Peterson as McCloskey has sold around 6,000 tickets for this fight and it still isn't sold out.

 

Khan vs McCloskey heading to Primetime TV
Posted on Apr 11, 2011
Amir Khan’s title defence against unbeaten Irishman Paul McCloskey is said to be heading for pay-per-view channel Primetime TV after the champ’s camp refused a deal to be shown on Sky Sports 3.

The move came after Sky downgraded Khan v McCloskey from a pay-per-view event last week, following various withdrawals from the undercard, hitting the WBA champ in the pocket for close to £1m.

A spokesman for Sky Sports confirmed on Sunday: ‘The Khans have refused the offer to move from Sky Box Office to Sky Sports 3. It does not mean we will no longer have ties with them.’

Primetime, which airs on Sky channel 480 and has been the home of WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch’s recent Super Six bouts, has yet to confirm the fight despite reports that a deal has been done.

As read on Boxing Futures.

 

That could be down to them attempting to sign Froch up for the Johnson fight because the morning after he beat Abraham they didn't mention the fight on Sky Sports News once.

 

According to a member if Khan's team Sky have said that they're not interested in showing a Bradley fight now that they've taken the McCloskey fight elsewhere

 

I wouldnt be shocked if Sky told team Khan that they are done. Khan needs Sky more than they need him.

 

I think Khan had to make the switch to cover, what he will pay out to McClosky. If he's only now getting 200k odd from having the fight on regular sky, that will go to McCloskey as they negotiated a similar figure. So what, Khan fights and gets nothing?

I think he had to go elsewhere to secure a better deal. Sky did make a gaffe though in making the fight a PPV before an opponent has been found. The terms should have been that his fight would not be a PPV. We would then not be in the position we are in in.

 

So much for "king" Khan coming home party.

 

I think thats utter bollocks from Khans team. Why wouldnt Sky be interested in the fight.

 

But the fact is he can't guarantee that he'll recoup that money on Primetime - no one outside of hardcore boxing fans knows anything about that channel and they never advertise on other channels - and as far as I can remember it's a pain in the arse to order a PPV from.

He's gambling with his income, but more importantly his future working relationship with Sky who according to team Khan have said that if the McCloskey fight was not on their channels then they will not be showing the Bradley fight later in the year

 

One of the problems for Khan is that he is a potential superstar but his promotion team are useless. He needs to sort that out cause the big fights are round the corner and he needs to focus on his boxing rather than getting involved in PPV mix-ups etc

 

I doubt Khan's people are lying, I imagine that Sky were probably calling their bluff by saying 'you take this fight away from us and we're not showing anymore of your fights'. Pretty powerful stance when you consider the money generated via Sky Box Office - but like you say - come Khan V Bradley they're going to want their slice if the pie.