With Khan and Haye, Sky do it because they know that enough people will buy into it that they will make a lot of money. It is a business decision, not a future of boxing decision. Until fans stay away from the poor cards in sufficient numbers, they will continue doing it. We all knew that Haye-Harrison was a mismatch ahead of time, yet lots of people still paid ppv for it. It might have harmed Haye's rep with the hardcore fans, but the mainstream fans are still there and the hardcore fans will still watch him. So sales of, say, Haye-Klitschko are unaffected by his previous fight having been ppv, too. The only way this will change is if fans boycott the crappy ppv cards, but they won't, not in statistically significant numbers. Sky are a business, they will only care about the future of boxing until it affects their bottom line, then they revert to type and take an opportunity to make money. And while it works for them, who can blame them? At least they show a good range of boxing, and if you take away the ppv revenue a lot of the domestic scraps we see would disappear from British television entirely. So while I agree with the sentiment on this thread, largely, the world has changed in the last few years, and generally it does not change back. cards.
In an ideal world they'd build to big fights for ages like they did with Wrestlemania III. To do this would need Sky to say we're doing two PPV shows a year that will be co-promoted with each big fight bid for by rival promoters. Problem is the people they aim at is people who dont watch Saturday Fight Night. They only know Khan and Haye so and give a **** about undercard because they dont think anyone else in British boxing's any good.
Frank Warren is clearly trying to go down the route of a regular PPV model. He would rather do 4 PPV mega shows a year with 4 small shows.
Pacquiao, De La Hoya, Mayweather, Trinidad. In the US there is always a PPV star because the US audience accept and embrace PPV. All the fighters i named and those before them became PPV stars by having mega fights and building there profile for years and years. How is DeGale going to emerge as a PPV star when his fights are already shown on PPV to a very small audience? Amir Khan is proof of what happens when you try and microwave an attraction, the same is happening with DeGale. Hatton for years 3-4 years built up a name for himself, established himself an an exciting cant miss attraction before he went on PPV on his own for the Tysuzu fight. Then he continued to build on it. Next fight a unification, then his US debut, then Castillo a mega fight at the time, then the big one Mayweather. Theres no momentum behind DeGale or Khan. With Haye he has the fact he is a Heavyweight on his side. But whatever you think about the guy he can sell a fight like nobody else in British Boxing history and the numbers he got back that up. Before fights he is on every single TV & Radio show talking about the fight. He is on these shows because people like him and want to watch him not because Adam Booth has paid for £1million worth of ad space during Corination street for 6 weeks. Its the same with Pacquiao being on the talk shows in America. Haye also had fights which sold. Valuev, the 10ft russian for the Heavyweight title, then the homecoming agaisnt Ruiz, and then Fraudley. All these fights had a story and they got huge PPV buys becasue people wanted to watch, they wern't forced to watch because there a boxing fan or a sports fan thats had it rammed down there throat on Sky. Hayes camp know that Chagaev will not do as high numbers and they would be bitterly disapointed with them but I guarentee that fight would do double what Khan vs McCloskey/Bradley does or any Frank Warren Mag 7 style event