Is advertising necessary on PPV events? On Saturday night I booked and watched the Haye vs Ruiz fight. I was disappointed that there were advertisement breaks in between almost every round. The fight cost £15 on sky boxoffice hd. I dont grudge paying for the fight itself, after all the fighters involved are putting on a great show whilst risking serious injury. Being a huge boxing fan I tend to buy most PPV fights via Sky, also from primetime now it is available, and watch any other boxing that is on Skysports and Espn that I also subscribe to. (I would also subscribe to HBO and Showtime if I could but sadly not available in the UK) The problem I have is not with normal shows like Skysports Friday fight nights, or Espns Friday night fights. I expect these shows to have plenty of advertising in between rounds and bouts. But why do PPV events on Skysports have this? I paid for the event and I want to see the full fight, including seeing and hearing whats going on in the corners in between rounds, or indeed hearing what the commentators and other pundits have to say about the fight. Now the person that brought this to my attention is not a boxing fan, just a typical female who doesnt enjoy sports however found the time to look up from her book on Saturday night to pass comment and ask why they have adverts on a PPV event? I started thinking about this and it made me a bit angry. I think she noticed this as every time an advert came on I was distracting her from what she was doing. I also thought about how it ruined the flow and feel of the event as every 3 minutes you are distanced from the event, getting up and going for refreshments etc. The atmosphere cant truly be appreciated as not only were the adverts so frequent but they also had some of the most irritating adverts known to man. Surely enough money is made from the PPV sales to cover this? I have a few questions to other viewers of PPV events. 1. Is this something that usually happens on skyboxoffice HD and Ive just never noticed it before? 2. Is it only in the UK or do PPV events in the US have similar adverts throughout? 3. Do you think its fair when you pay a premium for an event and have to endure these advertisements? 4. Does the advertising revenue go to the TV Company or the fighter themselves?
Its necessary for TV companies as they make more cash from it, which in turn means its necessary for the fighters as they then make more money from the TV stations.Is it necessary for the fans,of course not but when has boxing cared about its recent years.
Most boxing PPVs in the US (at least most worth watching) are HBO PPV. HBO the channel doesn't have ads as it's a premium/pay channel (well, they have ads for their own shows/movies/events but only between programs), so the PPVs do not either. They'll mention an upcoming fight or an episode of 24/7 between bouts, but they don't pull away during the fight.
Those commercials in between rounds were rather annoying. Had I paid, I would be upset. The time in between the rounds is part of the event. The advice of the corners, the dejection on the faces of the fighters... you need to see that in the big fights.
Just be thankful that Sky Box Office charges less than half as much for a PPV than HBO does. I'd rather have a few ads and pay less, frankly.
Yeah I should have mentioned that HBO charges $50-$60 for a PPV. I agree, I'd rather see a couple of ads.
HBO has no real advertising on its PPVs besides what is on or in the ring and the few sponsors that they give about 5 seconds to per sponsor.
its not a trade off though, boxing is mainstream in the US and the market is that way, however they would NEVER put adds in a ppv charge PPV money for non prime time events If sky thought they could get fifty bucks a pvv they would do it, Also note that America do full broadasts and stage the full event form locker rooms everythign on the mic Sky just buy the broadcast rights for a fraction of the price and stick their show over itm they dotn put any money behind the fighter etc etc Theres no excuse for PPVs in the UK period ! with the high subscription fees
