How to make PPV Boxing work in the UK??

I don't think pricing them as a fiver would work. Would it really get 3x as many buyers than if it was £15?

I'd like to see what's happening with Showtime/CBS in the states happen over here. Get DeGale/Gavin/Bellew etc on ITV headlining shows and appearing on various tv shows getting their name out there, and then when they are big enough, put them on an ITV-PPV channel.

 

It annoys me because its so inconsistent.Some big fights are ppv some are not so you always have to subscribe to sky then fork out again for certain fights.Id be happy to pay £20 per month to get an extra channel that just does boxing.If some weeks the people at sky only show re runs of old fights,fine as long as all the big fights are on Id glady pay.

 

For Sky its not that difficult, they've just been too greedy and tried to force PPV's. Hatton and Haye have been very successful, because Sky have the platform to build these guys up. If they get them in the correct fights, with the correct marketing, its easy as pie for them to sell PPV's. If you force **** fights with Amir Khan, thats just insulting peoples intelligence. Sky should probably just show less PPV's and concentrate on making the right ones. I'm not sure whether the stacked Warren cards are viable, I havn't heard of how successful that formula was but its obviously not going to match having a David Haye or Ricky Hatton.

Primetime have to take a different approach because they can't build people up the same way and likely can't afford to attract the natural PPV fighters. They have to realize their market is hardcore boxing fans. They have to be very aggressive negotiating with American networks in order to make it financially viable and they have to charge £10-15. What would help is advertising Primetime itself. It's still far too under the radar. You've got hardcore fans that know about it, then borderline fans that could be swayed that possibly don't even know the channel exists. So that is one thing they should be looking at. Forget casuals, you ain't selling Gamboa against someone to a casual fan.

 

But that wouldn't happen here, at least at the present time. ITV don't have the money, or inclination for that sort of investment of boxing. Obviously Showtime and CBS are under the same umbrella, and Sky don't have that sort of terrestrial partnership for a similar method. It sort-of worked when Sky Sports News was on freeview, but that's changed now obviously.

 

Good post

I don't know if people remember but a few years back Sky tried to make football work on PPV. It lasted a couple of years and then it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. Why? Who's going to pay out additional money over and above their subscription to watch a product that's the same as offered for free elsewhere?

The same principal applies in boxing. Unless you are an avid Amir Khan fan (of which they aren't that many), why would you pay to watch him fight a b class opponent, when shortly afterwards you can watch Pacquiao Mosely for free? Thinking about it in football terms, that's like putting Wolves v Blackburn on ppv and having United Liverpool free to air. Makes no commercial sense!

You make a good point in that there are ppv events that do a huge number of buys, but they have been marketed to death and often involve fights that people actually want to see!! The general public genuinely wanted to see Haye fight Harrison, Sky marketed it brilliantly and there was a curiosity about it all.

Sky have had their PPV proposition damaged of late and they will be keen to repair that image. I think that the Khan debacle will actually turn out to be a good thing for us boxing fans because they now know, if there was any doubt, that unless there is a genuine appeal about the fight people just won't buy it. 50 buys tells you that.

The answer is fewer PPVs, pack them with quality and people will buy them - you cannot fob people off with shite like Khan McCloskey with a dreadful undercard and expect to get away with it...

 

And obviously get boxing back on terrestrial TV. Fighters / promoters take a risk

 

Cut price pay per views have been tried in the states and it just doesn't work. You send a message to casual fans that this isn't a topdraw event and your hardcore audience who buy everything needlessly recieve a discount on something they would have bought at the full price. And as has been pointed out if you cut the cost of a ppv by half then you need double the number of people buying it - a small increase doesn't cover the cost of the discount.

The best example of this is the WWF - they were going bankrupt in 1997 because 7 out of the year's 12 ppvs were two hour 'cheap' shows rather than the full three hour "big five" ppvs. Out of desperation they scrapped the distinction in September with all shows being three hours and being charged at the full price. The buys stayed roughly the same and the revenue they were making went through the roof!

To me there are two options Sky could do. One is the suggestion already made in this thread that instead of looking at ppv to maximise income from boxing they try to spin-off combat sports to a dedicated channel. If they were to roll in WWE, Boxing and MMA (say nab the UFC rights off ESPN) then they could easily put together a schedule that would make it attractive for the hardcore fight fan. Whether they'd get enough subscribers to make it worthwhile I don't know though. And unless they were careful that would really shrink the audience of combat sports in this country.

The second option is that they need to become much more assertive and start seeing themselves as the producer of these pay per views. The simple fact is that no one promoter is big enough in the UK to actually hold a decent ppv - Warren has no established stars to headline, everyone else lacks the roster depth to put on a good undercard.

Sky needs to identify the fights they would like to see on these pay per views and work with the full range of promoters to get the best possible event. For example how much better would it have been for boxing if Sky had sat Hayemaker, Khan and Warren down and said - Haye vs. Harrison is the headliner for December 11th, Khan is the special attraction in the early hours of the morning and Frank you have three televised undercard fights (say original plan Chisora-Klit, DeGale-Smith and Cleverly). Equally if Sky had made Khan and Warren work together for the forthcoming show - Murray's Warren debut and Burns defence would have made for a decent undercard.

 

How is that going to work? Both ITV and BBC have had big budget cuts. Unless a top promoter is going to pay for TV, terrestrial TV and Boxing is not going to happen at the moment.

 

Put a very good headline fight on and 3-4 good competitive undercard bouts on it and most will be happy to part with £15 IMO

I was a BIG fan of the Magnificent 7 PPV I hope we get more cards with that kind of strength in depth

 

The main problem with the Magnificent 7 formula is probably the lack of a figurehead. Characters sell PPV's as well all know, the most successful PPV's have always been that way. That said, I'm not 100% sure how well it did.

 

As the only consistent broadcaster of live boxing in the UK, Sky need to take a stand and start getting our boxers to fight each other more often.

Nearly every Saturday Fight Night recently has been awful with the occasional good main event. Every card seems to start with a terrible mismatch (ie DeGale against that French guy the other week). By the time that's finished (and half the viewers have either gone out or changed channel), the main event starts and even if it's a great fight, nobody's watching it.

Unfortunately I don't really think there's any solution to the problems of:

a) non value for money ppvs
b) boxers not fighting regularly enough
c) boxers not in genuinely competitive fights often enough

Sky can drop the likes of Khan/McCloskey from SBO but as you've said it doesn't make it any better for us because another pay per view broadcaster has just picked it up instead. The same kind of things have been happening on a less public scale for years (ie Froch/Taylor getting shown on a ppv internet stream and other Froch fights taken by Primetime)

And if another broadcaster isn't prepared to air fights like this, they simply won't happen and the promoters will take even less risks with their boxers because losing is made up to be such a disaster in boxing currently.

 

I think SKY needs to give boxing a bit of a rest.

The quality matches are not there, if SKY cut back coverage to one domestic show a month or even bi-monthly, it could motivate promoters to their job, sell their fighters!!!

Look at Don King, love him or hate him, there can no denying that after Tyson went to prison, he started to work his butt off, putting together supercard after supercard. Someone needs to that in Britain.

As for PPV, as mention there is only one active fighter in this country, that can make it viable at the moment, and because of that I suspect we will looking at our first £20 PPV come the summer when Haye fights a Klitschko...