Was Leaving Sky For Primetime For Khan Good Or Bad?

There seems to be alot of dispute about this, On the one hand there was criticism that Khan was PPV on Sky box office people said that the cards were not worth PPV. Sky recently felt the same way and instead of putting Khan on Sky box office which is PPV, Offered him Sky sports 3 which is not PPV.

Khan then snubbed SBO and went to Primetime, If you recall the Khan v McCloskey fight Hearns was up in arms about the switch to Primetime from Sky Sports 3 yet he was completely powerless to change anything given that it was a GBP show. Hearns was behaving like a demogogue the entire build up the fight with outlandish claims like "There will only be 6000 buys!", Instead Khan sells atleast 60,000 PPV on Primetime and that too with just 4 days notice for Primetime, Given the circumstances and the last minute switch I would call that a great feat.

In my honest opinion given the circumstances I think Khan made the correct decision moving to Primetime from Sky given that they were only offering him sky sports 3 not SBO. This means that people who were not already subscribed to Sky sports and wanted to see Khan fight would have the difficulty of having to subscribe just to see a single fight. Perhaps Hearns and co would have been happier if Khan fought McCloskey on Eurosport instead?

Is Primetime better than Sky? No, But given the choice between fighting on Skysports 3 or PPV on Primetime I think the PPV with Primetime is better choice, Khan has a solid core of fans that will pay to see him no matter who he fights so there is a guarnteed income of atleast £1mil per fight. I think its good that GBP is putting its entire promotional vehicle behind Khan to ensure he gets the deal he deserves and not allow him to be short changed by Sky. I said earlier that De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer have spared no praise for Primetime and spoke about a "special relationship", I see Primetime getting somekind of exclusivity with showing GBP fights in the UK.

Either way, This is good for Primetime, Khan brings them in money and the backing of the biggest promotor in the world at the cost of Sky. I really dont understand why other boxers like Froch and promotors like Hearns are so concerned about Khan that take it upon themselves to dictate which television network/channel Khan should be fighting on. They should remain within thier mandate and mind thier own affairs and focus thier energies on thier own flagging careers and companies.

If Khan was still fighting on SBO people would complain the cards are not PPV, If Khan fought on Sky sports 3 it would be a step down, Going to terrestrial television and showing his fights for free would be doing charity, What other option did he have?

Another question, Why was De La Hoya so overly Pro-Primetime at the Khan McCloskey post fight presser here?:

http://www.hattonboxing.com/tv/features/khan-v-mccloskey-post-fight-news-conference

He was speaking about some kind of special deal with Primetime and GBP

 

Perhaps, But everyone was saying that Khan's next fight after McCloskey would be on Sky yet that did not happen, Its confirmed that Khan is fighting Judah and the UK broadcasting will be done on Primetime, Not just that but Primetime are expecting 100,000 PPVs which is a tall order but feasible.

 

Quite a lot of the PPV sales for Khan McCloskey came from Irish fans..although Judah is a bigger name, i can see the uk and Ireland PPV sales being under 60,000 for Khan v Judah

in the long run primetime is a poor move

 

Paul McCloskey never sold a PPV in his life, Its an error in judgement to think that the high sales were because of McCloskey who never sold a PPV in his life, Its because people wanted to see Khan.