LONDON (April 14, 2011) - Hennessy Sports are pleased to announce that yesterday at the British Boxing Board of Control's offices in Cardiff they outbid Frank Warren to stage the highly anticipated British Heavyweight title Super Fight between Tyson Fury and Champion Dereck Chisora. Promoter Mick Hennessy said "I’m delighted to announce that Hennessy Sports have won the rights to stage this well talked about mega fight and as per BBBofC rules we will be announcing the date and venue for this contest within the next 14 days." Tyson said "Del boy has got no excuses now, my promoter has just handed him by far the biggest purse of his career and if he pulls out of this fight now in my opinion he will prove himself to be a right plonker.” "The last time a heavyweight (Williams vs. Harrison) grudge match was fought for the British title it attracted over 8 million viewers on ITV1, only this is a much better fight than that one, between two undefeated hungry young heavyweights". added Fury.
If Warren wins it hopefully it will be on the DeGail and Groves card. So you will have 2 important fights and the Clev World title fight it might then be worth getting it in.
Its bad if it isnt on the show. I can honestly see this going from PPV to normal Sky if there isnt more competitive under card fights. Theres only 1 PPV star in the UK now and thats David Haye his fight upcoming should be the only PPV fight on Sky this year in my opinion.
I personally think there is a market for a £5-7 PPV in the UK. Primetime could do it but they seem obsessed with the £15 pricetag. Burns vs Someone Fury vs Chisora Bellew vs McEnzie Murray vs Rees put it with a decent US Card. Say Alvarez vs Rhodes for the UK intrest or Froch vs Johnson?? Charge £7. Would anyone have an issue with that?
Hate to say it none of those fighters are PPV standard all fights would make a great Saturday Night fight on Sky. I hope Sky see the light and drop the PPVs altogether as they must not be selling well and in times when money is tight for most people there are a lot of fans out there who wouldnt be able to afford the £7 pound charge. If they did bring in that then give them time and every fight will be on a PPV and thats something I hope never happens.
i pointed out in that primetime thread that last year they done a £4.99 PPV. it had roman martinez, vasquez JR, the Arrolyo brothers and some birds world title fight and was the best live fight card on british TV e had last year
LONDON (April 14, 2011) - Hennessy Sports are pleased to announce that yesterday at the British Boxing Board of Control's offices in Cardiff they outbid Frank Warren to stage the highly anticipated British Heavyweight title Super Fight between Tyson Fury and Champion Dereck Chisora. Promoter Mick Hennessy said "I’m delighted to announce that Hennessy Sports have won the rights to stage this well talked about mega fight and as per BBBofC rules we will be announcing the date and venue for this contest within the next 14 days." Tyson said "Del boy has got no excuses now, my promoter has just handed him by far the biggest purse of his career and if he pulls out of this fight now in my opinion he will prove himself to be a right plonker.” "The last time a heavyweight (Williams vs. Harrison) grudge match was fought for the British title it attracted over 8 million viewers on ITV1, only this is a much better fight than that one, between two undefeated hungry young heavyweights". added Fury.
Sky's main problem doing pay per views is the amount of complaints they get, even if the bill isn't very good. I'm only speculating here but they must have had thousands of complaints for the Haye/Harrison debacle. They would have also got a lot of complaints for many of Amir Khan's previous ppvs as well. Now complaints are ok usually but I'm sure they must get threats of customers to leave sky sports and even though the company still makes millions every month, it isn't good for business. I like your idea Rob for cheaper ppvs but it still must not make financial sense otherwise it would've been done by now. A half price ppv would obviously need twice as many buyers to get the same income and that's just not too likely in my opinion.
Hope they can get this on normal sky then and they might just be able to get close to a million viewers. It does highlight how quick boxing has changed in this country though and it's disappointing that the numbers watching will be so much less. I know most tv and sports are going this way but it doesn't bode well for the future at all.
Cheap pay per views don't work - you're basically sending a message to people that this is a bush league show that they don't need to watch. Plus you're needlessly discounting the purchases of your hardcore audience that would have brought the show regardless.
You're not going to get anywhere with a £5 PPV. I don't think people think 'oh I'll buy this for a fiver because its not 10 or £15'. You're either interested in the boxing on show or you're not. You have to pay to show the fights, you need twice as many buying it at that rate as roe said. Returning any sort of profit is difficult once you've paid to show it. The only way theres a PPV market is if you've got a high profile fight (Haye/Klitschko) OR you've got a card for a very reasonable price and you don't have to sell many to show a +. For a company like Primetime its about getting the right cards that boxing fans are going to be interested, haggle the price down in order to show it using the fact nobody else in the UK is interested as leverage, and charge at least £10.