Don't write off ITV yet. Figures released for Barker show a 625,000 peak, which is great numbers for ITV4. Bigger figure than Sky get for Friday's and ahead of Prizefighter. Word around that Prizefighter is a target for ITV, and maybe even Haye. Supersix got good figure (1.5 mill) even on a one week delay. So audience is there. Talk of subscription (ie ppv) for ITV so that would put them in a great place to not only build talent, but then show top fights rather than see them syphoned off into Sky. Let's hope so anyway. Their boxing output is too good to lose, and seeing one company in a virtual monopoly postion is bad for fans, viewers, fighters and promoters.
Hey man theres some good numbers, it can only be a good thing for boxing that there may be competition between broadcasters!
this is complete bull****. Haye got £5million from Sky for the Valuev fight, do you honestly think ITV could come close to that amount when they can't even pay 300k for Froch vs Taylor/Dirrell. Prizefighter gets 10x the average friday fight night viewing figures, and Barry Hearns Matchroom who promote it has a deal with Sky for his boxing shows, prizefighter, darts, poker, snooker, pool. He is not going to jeperidse his deal with Sky which he has had for 10 years+ for all those sports to get more exposure for Prizefighter. Get £625,000 viewers is great, but it doesnt mean ITV made a profit from the event. They will of had to pay a large fee to hennesey, then they have to pay the crew including presenters. it all adds up and the likleyhood is the advertising revenue is not covering the cost of showing the fights. Showing a re-run of Inspector Morse may get 500 viewers but it cost ITV nothing so they make a profit from it.
You say its a bad thing for Sky to be the only game in town but I disagree. The lack of TV dates means that promoters are fighting to get there shows on TV. Recently on sky we had the Ryan Rhodes vs Jamie Moore. The only reason this fight happend is because Rhodes could not get on tv elsewhere. and on the undercard there was 2 other british title fights. Maloney had Edwards vs Ahmed for the British Flyweight Title as a main event earliar in the year, 6 months later Edwards vs Bayar is on the undercard. We had Sexton vs Rogan and the McLoskey double header, and Paul Smith vs Tony Quigley would have included Kell Brook vs Michael Jennings if it wasnt for an injury to Brook. We would have never got Friday fight night shows this good a year ago. Previously promoters were struggling to fill the dates avalible on sky. The promoters are putting on better bills and better fights to get the TV date and in my opinion its a very good thing
also advertisers do not want to be associated with boxing. thats why the PPV model works. Its got to be BBC, Sky/Subscription or PPV like Primetime. There is clearly a market for boxing with the public, but its not for the advertisers. PPV is the way forward and if you dont like it better find another sport to watch. If Heneseys shows go to Primetime and he wants people to pay £6 for them, he is not going to put John O'Donnel agaisnt Tom Glover and have Tyson Fury agaisnt a bum on the undercard. He will have 2-3 title fights and a couple of exciting 50-50 fights on the undercard to entice people to pay £6 to watch it. he doesnt have to worry about that on ITV becuase he has a 10 cards a year contract and all they ask for is a domestic title fight.
yeah i agree with this ^ ^ less tv dates means better fights ITV going might turn out to be a blessing in disguise
Its something i havent really thought about before Rob and you may be right, better cards on Sky as a result of less TV dates and then some shows on PPV (Primetime etc) that Sky decide not to pick up!
Pretty much summed it up there rob. Quite where you got the idea of itv wanting prizefighter carrot i don't know. They are pulling out now, and unless something drastic changes they won't be back soon. The problem with itv4 is that although the Boxing gets higher ratings than a film or old repeat in that same slot, its a hell of a lot more expensive to produce-and not that cost effective. It seems like everybody is hoping for a new broadcaster to come in to it, on boxrec people are already claiming to have "Inside info" that ESPN are coming in to boxing. Funny, weren't most people on here convinced they were going to show the super 6 a couple of months backatsch rob makes some good points about needing to put on good shows in the battle for sky dates. At the minute we get every major domestic fight televised, and people are acting like boxing is on its last legs. Things could be much worse. As great as it was for Setanta to show these german and US shows-and it really was, they were often 'novelties'. Sky don't seem to be increasing their US boxing output much, the 'superfights' in the second half of this year are about it really. Sadly the great run of fights in the US up until christmas don't appeal to more than the hardcore boxing fans at 5am in the morning, and its a death slot for advertisers. Point being, things aren't brilliant but they could be much, much worse. Where would british boxing be if Sky turned round and said: "Enough is enough, no more Friday Fight Night." Absolutely ****ed. And if the promoters hadn't bucked up their game like the have done this season, who's to say they might not have done that-or axed one of Warren or Maloney for example.
It's a tricky one. He could go cap in hand to sky and suck off Dave darts and Barney Francis to get some slots, but there aren't really that many available, especially now Hatton has entered the fold. And if he did get dates on sky, there is no way in hell would he get away with o'Donnell v Glover or afrobum, or the like. If Hayemaker Promotions couldn't get a deal with sky, I can't see Hennessy Sports being more deserving. A shame that hayemaker now seems to be down to the two man band of haye and Groves, when there was so much potential for them. The only option with Primetime is if they purchase some decent US shows and Hennessy offers a UK leg of a PPV double header. No way can he go FTA on primetime, I can't honestly see them getting enough advertisers and sponsors to make it worthwhile. Logically they'd do a 3 hour show from 9.00, come off air at midnight or show replays of old fights until the stuff from the states starts.
If sky show the major US fights next year like Berto vs Mosley in January, Jones Jnr vs Hopkins in March, Williams vs Pavlik in April, Mayweather vs Pacquiao in May, with a domestic card every week and a Khan or Haye PPV every 3 months I will be happy with that. Also seems they are going to show the Klitscko fights from Germany as they are on at a decent time. Then get Primetime to pick up the 2nd tier US fights like Kessler vs Ward, Bute vs Andrade last week or Bradley vs Peterson coming up. Have those for £3-£5 or have them with a Hennesey or German Undercard for £7-10. You cannot complain because your getting a choice of whether you watch it or not. Then you have the odd ESPN repeat along with Eurosport.
If Hennesey can put together some good shows and then have one of the decent American or German fights or the super 6 after then I would be very interested and I am sure most people would be happy to start paying regulary to them.
Not a chance of it happening I would say more like Hennessy will not have any sort of tv deal apart from Froch on Primetime. This is why Hennessy should crawl back to Sky with his tail between his legs. Some of his string wouldn't get 5'000 people watching the fight in the arena so how who is going to buy a British title or even worst a English title fight for no matter what price is madness. He needs to get some sort of tv deal if he wants to stay in promoting in the long term. His lesser fighters need it too to be on tv then by all means if they make world title level so be it then put them on PPV but they might not make the numbers. I am wondering if and when Munroe fights for a world title will he be on PPV on Sky hate to say it he is not a PPV type of fighter like Hatton , Haye and Khan I wonder if Moloney will go down the PPV route with him:think.