Trust me, it's been on the table many, many times. The majority of advertisers are not interested in being attached to professional boxing so the revenue stream isn't there.
There are a lot of factors at play. I would love nothing more than to see a boxing channel but I am pitching a boxing show with a promotional outfit to TV at the moment and it's a really hard sell. Boxing desperately needs a massive image overhaul and PR campaign to restore its lustre.
A boxing channel is obviously everyones dream! Fights from the past documentarys covering are favourite , and lesser known fighters and build ups to the weekends fights. Only problem is differant people own the footage so to get it all together on one channel just isnt ever going to happen!
longcount is spot on. boxing gets high viewing figures but advertisers don't want to be associated with it because.........its 2 blokes punching each other in the face. they would rather advertise on a show that gets half the viewers. also the sports you've mentioned can have 100's of hours of top level action each week so they can fill a 24 hour tv channel with LIVE or unseen sport. Theres rarely more than 3 world title fights a week, when you add the undercard your going to get no more than 10 hours.......i already know what your thinking "they can show classic fights...." People want LIVE sport replays of old football matches and talk shows get poor viewers and wont drive subscriptions. add to that Promoters overcharge for the product. PPV is pretty much the only way 2nd tier boxing can work on TV.
I know some purists here hate MMA, but I think a Combat sport channel would be more successful. Pro Boxing Biographies Classic fights K1-Kickboxing MMA Martial arts Olympic/World Championships coverage for boxing, taekwondo, judo, BJJ, etc. etc. on its scheduled line up. Targeting all types of fight fans. Bigger audience. Better chance for success.
HBO and/or Showtime need to have a weekly boxing show every week for about an hour. Once that happens, then may'be down the line there will be a Boxing network.
Wait, you don't like seeing Wlad vs. Williamson every night on ESPN Classic? weird... Seriously though...I remember a number of years ago King was in negotiations for this, and I was really excited about the proposed features that channel would have. Obviously it died out. How hard would it be for this, as most of the channel would be classic fights? Doesn't one team, or one group, own a large majority of the boxing library? Also, espn classic, they have to have more access to the fights they show...It's ESPN Classic, not ESPN underperforming...seriously 75 percent of the fights they show is like wtf?
