ITV confirm no boxing in 2010 - "Boxing is not not economically sustainable"

what i don't understand is if boxing shows have become "economically unviable" and its apparently bleeding them dry, then why the heck do they have 2 separate commentators, sometimes 2 analysts (if the Cobra, disco darren or jono are available) a presenter and a clown walking around behind the scenes asking cringeworthy questions.

surely they could save a bit of change by having one person presenting as well commentating (ala HBO) and only one analyst.

rowling presenting and commentating along with Duke
Barry analysing pre and post fight, simple!

Don't get the point in having that reporter who walks around looking lost, don't forget its not only him, he has a camera man fellowing him with other people accompanying that cameraman. However insignicant it may look, it all adds up!

I just think there's deeper reasons to them pulling the plug then just "economic sustainability"

 

Yeah how much do you think the sailing club or whoever the flip runs it charged the TV company?

Rob's spot on.

Its not televisions fault boxing is a mess. If the sport got itself a governing body who could negotiate a good deal then we might have a point bitching about ITV.

ITV is the most commercial of channels anyway and geenrally just makes stuff that will get ratings.

 

It's exactly right. When Benn and Eubank were fighting everybody was tuning in. Hence ITV can demand big money for advertising rights during such a fight.

The simple formula is boxing is costing them more than is coming in, or making such a small profit that it is neglible. Not enough people are tuning into the cards and the costs are outweighing the benefits. Boxing needs to explore the reasons as to why that is, because Benn and Eubank if anything proved it can be done.

 

The Ukraine FA wanted a fee to match the well over the odds offer that Setanta made them and no-one was interested. Not just ITV.

 

the lead sports story a few weeks back was some kid sailing the world lol Everything is a "story" with all the media outlets we have. My point is the sport is not being showcased as it once was. People mentioned Benn/Eubank era but do you know in America some of Sweet Pea's biggest fights came on Terestrial tv? do you know Micheal Watson fought on US terestrial TV?...ITS ALL ABOUT BEING VISIBLE!...The big problem that boxing has is that most sports are backed by corporate sponsors boxing is backed by cons and casinos which is why their hosted their and not stadiums. Its ****ing sad FFS fishing is on more. lol

Promoters are only concerned with lining their pockets networks turn down my fight (cool) I'll have my fighter fight a bum put it on my own PPV station stack it with some names charge X amount of quid and I'm good! Until boxing gets a governing body (which could never happen) the sport will always have scars. but it's still the best!

Some people have even said to me that its better that the sport is niche as you'll get better, more knowledgable fans to converse with, I see where they're coming from and I want my sport to be a fraternity kind of like how we all are here. But at the end of the day it helps us all by letting the sport grow but these pea brained "promoters" are either too stupid to realise it or too wicked to care.

 

Boxers should earn less, fight more and in more competative match ups. It's much easier for MMA orgs to make fights cos their fighters have a different mentality as to how much they can earn etc

 

i was wondering how long it would take before someone brought up gay porn

 

So many people seem to be failing to grasp this. If you're a boxer you fight once every four or five months and a crowd of 7 or 8 thousand is considered very good. A Professional darts player is playing in 50 or 60 tournaments a year and those events can also pack in seven or eight thousand people per session.

The darts is attracting way more people through the gate, but the boxer still wants paying on the same level as the darts player. You could have a ton of boxing on tv if bills were spectator friendly in the same way as the darts (competitive match-ups) and the price per hour was the same. But pricing it at that level doesn't make a lot of money for the particpants when your only performing three days a year.

 

It is financial; and you cannot blame them. Look at all the fuss many on this forum put up when they found gulp.... that may have to pay £13 to watch Froch....

We both know a boxing event is a huge cost, the only way I see it working is if a promoter takes a hit and offers to pay production costs and fights for free to the channel in the hope of getting publicity, but realistically that is not happening.

 

This is spot on.

The fighters want more money than the market has decided they're worth.

 

ITV won't show boxing because they don't get the advertising revenue from it and they are a commercial channel. The ratings that they get and the quality of the fights might make the advertisers pay more but the sad truth is that advertising revenue has been declining for years on commercial TV and the recession has made that even worse.

Most fights aren't on telly and most never have been. The trick for the game is going to be to have shows that make money on the gate or with sponsorship or with limited internet PPV other than the big big fights

 

edit

 

Considering if they don't have live boxing they are usually running something along the lines of reruns of The Sweeney in that slot, that wouldn't be particularly suprising?

 

not sure about 10 times that i suspect is BS, but it IS true that the figures are very healthy which just goes to show the potential of boxing as a massive TV sport, because these henny cards are most of time atrocious and ITV do a **** poor job of promoting and advertising it, sometimes even die hards don't know its on just a couple days before...thanks for the internet hey