Nothing that sky hasn,t done before tbh. They do the exact same for every massive fight. But have a much higher outreach. And i bet spend a good bit more on marketing than bt did. Pretty sure bt only actually has something like 1.6 million viewers.
In that case a 50% hit rate of their viewing numbers suggests their marketing was fantastic. The quality of promotion was better than sky with the jaded Toe Haye to Toe Haye etc.
Great numbers if true. I had a problem with ordering so had to call them. This was early evening (6pm ish), it took over 30mins to get through. I was mad. Anyhow, the Operator stated that calls were far exceeding expectations at that point with more staff being drafted in for later
The people celebrating the gate beating heavyweight records are grade A dick heads. Let’s celebrate because many fans were ripped off! Idiots. Good fight, fantastic experience but the prices they were charging were absolutely scandalous and it’s clear that the majority of you don’t ever go to boxing events if you think that’s a good thing.
you don’t need BT to buy the PPV so doesn’t matter how many people are on BT. The casual fans and non boxing fans around me all knew about this fight and was asking me about it. AJ fans need to take these figures on the chin and stop crying that their marble statue ain’t the biggest draw any more
I tried to buy it on the BT SPORT website and it kept telling me my card billing address was incorrect. So I tried again using my brothers card details and it said the same. Gave up trying to give them my 25 quid and listened on the wireless so I’m guessing others did the same
If that's true it's really impressive. Has it been confirmed anywhere other than Arum? I'd take what he says with a pinch of salt.
So it did less than Bellew v Usyk, both Haye Bellew fights and less than 150k more than AJ Ruiz which was seen as a hopeless mismatch with a fat, unknown late substitute? Not saying the figures are bad but they’re not amazing either.
I think you have to take into account the time of day they were shown to be a fair comparison. All of the ones you mention, aside from Ruiz 1, were on at respectable times that work for UK viewers. If it was on at 10pm UK time you'd have a better test. I'm not that fussed about PPV figures but the real comparison would be AJ vs Ruiz 1. AJ's profile and marketing are bigger than Fury's and the Sky operation to promote the fight is always slick. Sky cleverly promoted AJ vs Ruiz 1 as this 'day of sport' in the summer, Champions League final on at the same day with AJ Ruiz later on. It was also in New York so the time is slightly better than staying up until 5am. Saying that, I thought BT did a good job. If the figures are legit, 150k less than that AJ vs Ruiz 1 and Sky's promotion machine is pretty impressive in my opinion.
You’re comparing apples and oranges though. On one hand, time is a factor, but so is the opponent. Ruiz was a late sub, a fat lad, and nobody had heard of him, whilst Wilder had been all over the place and regularly on Sky. Put it this way. Taking into account the size of the fight and the pre fight talk about what it would do, (2m in America suggesting this was genuinely bigger than anything in years bar Mayweather Pacquiao), 800k here bearing in mind Fury is British seems disappointing. Ultimately it was correct to say that whilst many people were talking about Fury and knew who he was, converting that to actually paying to watch him fight was difficult. Without question more people were talking about Fury Wilder, but more bought Usyk Bellew.
The time of Usyk vs Bellew makes the comparison void in my opinion. Sky also promote their fights far better than BT - I'd argue that unless you are comparing Wilder vs Fury 2 to AJ vs Ruiz 1 it's actually you comparing apples and oranges! Joshua has a bigger profile than Fury, the fight was on at a more respectable time, the Champions League final also helped. If the numbers are true, I think those are great figures for a 5am.
