Is 97K PPV Sells the worst flop in HBO PPV history???

everything is about race to you people.

 

I think many people got expectations blown out of whack- I was consistently at the low end of estimates because I wasn't expecting a ton of buys straight away. I like to follow the business side of things, so I know PPV sales aren't easy to accumulate. It wasn't until later in the process that I found out the Mets-Cubs was going on that night, otherwise I'd have revised my estimates lower still.

In this case, the 50k is more relevant because it's the difference between a small profit and a small loss on U.S. PPV sales (with the other markets and a big live gate, the event was a clear success overall). I knew from how the breakeven was structured that HBO themselves weren't expecting the pie in the sky numbers some mentioned on here.

Ultimately, we'll see GGG selectively put back on PPV depending on the matchup with the remainder of fights on regular HBO.

 

Hopkins-Dawson did about 40-50k buys on HBO PPV.

 

:good Those are currently the 3 obvious ones, but I do think they could sell Jacobs-Quillen winner as a PPV fight on the off chance PBC and HBO collaborate again, as well. Until then, it's back to the grind of regular HBO to stay sharp and keep his name fresh in peoples' minds.

A side note of the 97k number- that was reported by Rick Glaser, who routinely hears (and publishes) the most bearish numbers around out of any reporting source. Whatever he publishes is certifiable as the floor. Even if PPV's ultimately outperform what he reports, his estimates are always the lowest. Examples: both Mayweather-Maidana fights were pegged by Rick at sub-800k instead of the 900 and 925k they were reported at, respectively.

Rick's got better sources than I do, but for fans doing apples to apples comparisons, it pays to keep the reporting source consistent. Using Glaser for some fights and not others can skew things.

 

40k for Dawson-Hopkins.

 

I don't like it, either. It's a crutch that networks lean on to subsidize their own fight budgets that they also use to whack fans over the head with.

This wasn't such an issue even 10-15 years ago, but with HBO's budget roughly 1/3 of what it used to be, we're now in the weak spot of having fights too big for HBO to fund, and too lackluster to really be PPV worthy.

Unless another boxing guy comes in at HBO to get the budget for it increased, we're going to see this continue, unfortunately. in 2003, the GGG-Lemieux card would've been a heck of an HBO regular Championship Boxing event.

The budget cuts are also why you see HBO increasingly marketing ex-Soviet republic guys, which is a talent pool that used to never catch a break here. Some think it's racially driven or some such nonsense, but the reality is they just fight for cheaper than U.S. fighters with comparable accomplishments, so HBO can afford to show them more frequently.

And, finally, those budget cuts are a big part of what opened the door for Al Haymon to successfully recruit so many fighters to his stable with hedge fund money funding big payouts up front, but that's another post for another time.

 

There are other underperformers (Maidana-Morales didn't crack 50k, either, but also carried a very low breakeven).

In recent history, and accounting for the fighters' pedigree involved, Dawson-Hopkins really is the worst performer I've seen. GGG-Lemieux spent $3.8 million on guaranteed purses for the 2 main events, while Hopkins-Dawson was $2 million, and we've got triple the buy rate and a much larger live draw and international #'s for the former.

GGG-Lemieux is the lowest selling HBO PPV since Hopkins-Dawson, if I'm not mistaken. And that's whether we use the 97,125, or 150k number, or even if it had hit the the 175 or 200k mark. HBO was smart to keep its expenses in check as it tested the water here.

 

Who did 97K? Wasn't anyone recent.

And worst PPV, perhaps Cotto/Malignaggi? Or Mosley/Mayorga?

 

It's also my 2 cents that the 40k Hopkins-Dawson number is also what ultimately led James Prince to screw over Chad in favor of Ward when those negotiations came around and James was on both sides of the table.

Chad's name had plenty of boxing cred and the Hopkins rematch did strong ratings on HBO, but the complete bomb of the PPV and lack of live gate drawability of Chad led to Prince seeing more value in feeding Dawson to Ward instead. He gave Dawson one of the worst deals I've ever seen in a contract to get that fight done. Had Dawson-Hopkins I done better, I don't think he'd have done him THAT dirty.

 

You are an executive for HBO?

 

150k came out before the 97k (which was from some jerk with obvious agenda). Loefler later confirmed that it was 150,000+.
From that jerk and Loefler, the latter clearly had better knowledge.