boxing channel?

I read somewhere that Setanta paid £35,000 for JMM-Diaz. No idea how accurate this is though...

 

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Its a shame that the cheapest Sky package that includes sports is £40.I know a lot of people would happily pay say £10 and have the sport channels and nothing else.I watch jack**** on the other sides

 

I think a boxing channel would not work as I don't see enough demand for it but a combat sports channel could work :think.

They could show boxing, UFC, other MMA shows, K1 etc. That would widen the appeal of the channel but I'm guessing there'd be a lot of clashes. Quite frequently there is boxing and UFC on the same night. So that wouldn't work as well....

 

Yeah, Sky really make you pay for the the sports. I'd quite happily pay 15 quid for just the sports channels but I don't need the extra crap.

When Sky were showing a lot of boxing a few years back they were crafty gits, they kept moving the big fights inbetween SS1, SS2 and SS3. So to guarantee seeing all the fights you had to have the subscription that gave you all 3 channels rather than the cheaper one that just had 2 of them.

 

I know this isn't the popular thing to say on here but there is no way this would work. If there was the market for it then it would be happening already. As was said earlier, promoters need to dramatically drop their asking prices before anyone will pick most fights up.

I think Sky's coverage of international boxing in the last year has been abysmal but they aren't stupid, they obviously don't feel it is worth the money.

I'm disappointed that the BBC and ITV aren't more into boxing but I understand why. The BBC spent a fortune on Audley and got burnt. They spent a load of time building Danny Williams, Michael Sprott, Audley and Herbie Hide as rivals and how many fights did they get between them? 2 Williams-Sprott fights and the 1st one was before he was a name.

ITV signed a deal with Frank Warren. They thought they had Hatton but he went out on his own. Then they built Khan and just as he starts to head towards big fights, he jumps to Sky. They have a deal with Hennessey Sports but as soon as Witter and Froch get major fights, they are in the States for extra money.

It is hard for channels to justify it

 

To be honest mate, this subject comes up quite often and I think most people here, in their heart of hearts, know its a non-starter.....

 

On a semi positive note, I don't think we're that far from every fight being available legally over the internet. The downside is that it probably marginalises the sport yet further

 

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What if the likes of HBO, Showtime, RTL ect could stream the fights they are showing on their websites for a price (or even monthly subscription) that would work wouldnt it, they would get more people visiting their websites, which is always good for them, and they would make a bit of extra cash from the money we are paying, and its not as if their natives would cancel their subscriptions with them; because they show a whole variety of programmes and its unlikely people would just have a subscription to watch the boxing. The bbc show live tennis and other sports so it is do-able

 

I think on some level this going to happen

 

I pay £5 a month to watch boxing not on setanta online. The quality is never going to be as good as watching it on tv but i get to view it atleast,i guess i'll just have to watch all their fights from the US. Hopefull a US broadcaster will sign up britihsh broadcasters so i can watch them.

I've got no need for my tv now so if anyone is looking for a 32" samsung i'm your man.

The BBC have around £224 million left over and are thinking of giving it to research for faster broadband speeds, surely they can use a bit of that for boxing with all their rubbish tennis and motorbike racing they buy. We pay for it at the end of the day, we should make a petition.

 

The market aint big enough, mate. A lot goes into TV channels mind- you wouldn't realise how much they cost to run; building studios, paying electric bills for these studios, paying all of the staff, renting offices, setting up subscription services with staff that need to be paid- it's endless. It's a mammoth undertaking and boxing cannot support itself on it's own channel- it could only be done via Setanta or Sky as an add on. Boxing was just something else Setanta added to it's bow for a few more subscriptions. We're all gonna have to get used to dodgy internet streams. I'd subscribe to 'Showtime' and 'HBO PPV' if I could.

 

Yes they did use to show all them but then came along Setanta who were willing to spend stupid amounts of money to show them. As I was saying in a thread yesterday Sky were even showing Taylor vs Spinks and Wright vs Quartey just before Setanta came on the scene.

However, Sky are sensible, they will not put themselves at financial risk unlike Setanta did. Sky will start showing all these fights as soon as Setnata collapse.