Saw the headlines about ITV getting back into Boxing and thought 'Fantastic, my beloved sport back in front of a terrestrial television audience where it belongs'. Finding out the details was like biting into the best looking Quarter Pounder you've ever seen, to find it's packed with maggots. Desperate, grasping greed is what this looks like. The Eubank's are going to walk away from this laughing all the way to the bank, everybody else is going to suffer though. Some naive head of sport at ITV has either been stitched up by the Eubanks or is an Arthur Daley type looking to cash in on the success of Sky Sports. Eddie Hearn said that Eubank vs Quinlan wouldn't be accepted as a headliner on a Sky Sports fight night, and he's right. Quinlan is a 12 fight novice who's already been stopped once. The general public aren't as moronic as TV executives think. Even at £3 a pop, this is going to bomb badly. ITV coming back is like unwrapping a present to find a fat, greedy rat.
I couldn't believe it. How do you go from BJS and GGG to someone with this record. For itv to think people are that thick enough to entertain this is a joke. Sky get away with it because they can make expensive, flashy adverts that lure the idiots in along with constant build up on Sky Sports News but even they wouldn't make you pay for this.... Or would they, God forbid this sells well Eddie might see it as an opportunity. Future Area title fights for a fiver.
Maybe ITV are just sounding things out and just getting started and need a couple of lower key fights to test out their PPV platform and terrestrial productions out before they throw some big bombs out there on ITV1 which will smash viewing figures of all the others competitors put together. I'd think the heads of itv sport knows exactly what they're doing.
Its a mockery to us who really like boxing and care about it. But iv got an awful feeling that itll make money. Lets be right, non of ajs fights so far should of been ppv unless its been propped up by real high earning undercard fighters, fighting for world titles but all this has made big money
The ITV4 undercard is headlined by Wille Limond/Robbie Davies and Jack Arnfield/Mick Hall which isn't too bad all things told for a small hall show. If that was the full card I'd have no issue. The whole Eubank PPV thing has failure written all over it.
This is why too much competition can be a bad thing in boxing. The market becomes saturated, the product becomes weaker. If Matchroom have a monopoly that allows them to deliver all the big fights ala UFC then so be it. I can't see one single good point about this ITV PPV and Eubank partnership. As it stands, 100% I won't be giving them a penny. Hearns, and even Warren, must be laughing at how poorly they are handling this.
what big fights have they made between their fighters? I agree they have the monopoly but hopefully the BT deal evens that out a bit
ITV aren't stupid....they are probably using these initial fights to sure their production is up to it then once they know their production is on key then they will slaughter the competition especially when they put an itv 1 show on. I think Warren especially is pooing himself and so are BT. ITV have spoilt their party big time.
Theory falls down when its clear that this is a completely dire fight, and the numbers will be so poor even its priced at £0.99 that its going to put the whole business case into question. Even Langford vs CEJ although not PPV would have been a far better fight. CEJ should have been forced to take that fight instead of fighting this 9-1 bum. Why put on a stinker like this unless you are that lacking in knowledge that you do not know any better? ITV bosses are completely lacking in knowledge and they will get burned when this bombs
ITV don't have the resources to rival Sky/BT on a regular basis but could given the right fighter rejuvenate the sport on terrestrial TV. There is a rumour that the Eubank deal is a one time only thing on PPV and ITV want to see a return immediately. I genuinely don't see why this fight couldn't be on ITV1 given the low rights fee it would command. Sr. really needs to start listening to those around him with more experience in broadcasting.
ITV don't need the resource to match BT or Sky yet, they however have potential viewing figures on terrestrial TV that will dwarf both the others combined. Once they get their first BIG fight you'll see the others shake in worry especially Warren & BT who will defo be the 3rd platform for any top end boxer now. Would be any boxers dream ( forget the money ) to be on itv 1 on a Saturday night for a world title fight!!! Can't wait and well done itv for coming back
Not really because TV advertising revenues have fallen through the floor since the early 2000's, and therefore the higher viewing figures on terrestrial do not matter. Also the differential between the two is nowhere near as great as it once was! A saturday night of top boxing neither attracks the numbers that it did in the early 1990s, nor does it generate anything like the revenue based on expected millions watching... Terrestrial TV is literally dying on its knees for a number of reasons, and therefore the advertising revenue is very poor. That is where you used to make money from such a fight on terrestrial TV. - Free internet streaming of all events (not recorded in official figures either) - Far more choice via cable TV and cracked dishes - More things in general to do for your average person (internet)
While this is a joke of a fight and PPV, Eddie Hearn can STFU as well. His last Saturday Fight night had Ohara Davies v Andrea Scarpa as the main event so he is talking nonsense as usual and Eubank v anyone is bigger than that. He fills the 5-7pm slots on his PPV with fights that should be on the Saturday Fight Night cards (Blackwell v Ryder, Burton v Buglioni etc) and churns out WBC international belt sh*te on the regular Sky. The regular sky main events should be really top level domestic stuff for British/European belts and then PPV for the top level world stuff. He just makes it up as he goes along. His views on Molina pre and post making the fight with Joshua expose him as a lying crook
