Ward barely draw fights fans, much less casuals. You need casuals to get big PPV numbers. The kind of fight where you bring in 7-8 guys, have a poker game, maybe bring in a young lady to entertain the masses. Can't do that without the potential of a good fight. GGG-Canelo will be that kind of bout. I know I'll be having guys over for a poker game at night they decide to meet because it will be an exciting fight. Ward? Might be a good boxer, but he definitely is not fan friendly.
Cable companies getting half the pie, HBO getting a cut, they don't want to give that up. Usually it's old ways of business holding things back when it's time to innovate. Fight did a little less than I expected if these unofficial numbers are to be trusted. 200k-300k was all I was expecting.
I was expecting 250k at best. The Status Quo doesn't want to change, but boxing promoters need to take matters into their own hands and take a risk. Forget putting these PPVs on Cable TV. Cable is losing subscribers by the millions and that means the audience numbers are shrinking. Powerful promoters like TR need to push toward the next step and try out new platforms. The Taxi industry didn't want to change until Ride-Sharing apps beat them down. The music industry fought tooth and nail to keep their CDs until MP3s took over. Same thing with Netflix and the movie rental industry. It's time for digital distribution to take the old PPV model to the cleaners.
Great post, but boxing is got to clean up its act to be a legitimate force to drive something like that. NASCAR went from a regional happenstance to a national ticket seller, obviously different worlds but the point holds, A niche sport with shady regulation, more BS than legitimate competition, on and on is never going to attract enough clicks per dollar. All the old promoters are going to have to die off or something before any real change happens
Just blaming Ward? Kov can't draw fans neither. Neither fighter is a draw. Kov fought Ward like he was a 50 year old Hopkins after Kov knocked down Ward in the 2nd. If GGG-Canelo is successful it's because of Canelo not GGG. 97K. All regular sports viewership is down. NFL, NBA, Boxing. The only thing on the rise is probably MMA.
Sure that works, but digital distribution is still the same as ordering the PPV, NO? The cable companies aren't going anywhere, and will do whatever it takes to get new subscribers to their company, and cable and satellite providers will always be the Promoters go to, to get distribution on all platforms imo.
The break even point for Crawford-Postol was 75k wit around 2 mill $ total purse, and It was 100k for GGG/Lemieux with 3,5 mill $ total purse. 160k could mean the fight made a serious loss. I hope this doesn't put the rematch in jeopardy.
Yes, but you get a much wider audience and you don't have to charge a ridiculous amount to make up the difference. If I want to watch a PPV, I have to get a TV, a Cable Box and buy the PPV event. If it's on YouTube, all I need is a phone, tablet, or computer. Digital distribution has been proven to work. Cable companies are losing tons of subscribers every month. People are cord cutting and they're cutting out cable boxes altogether, especially the millennials. Digital steaming is the future: https://www.inverse.com/article/157...ers-largest-pay-tv-subscriber-drop-in-history
True. I have Fios TV and that **** is expensive, even their PPV'S Are more than every other competing cable companies for whatever reasons. Plus you have digital streaming services like sling, and and a few others that are substantially cheaper. We're most likely going to switch to another cable provider soon, unless they give us free HBO and showtime for a year. lol
It's all Wards fault for the low numbers? Kov is excused for the low PPV numbers? Let me guess, the 160k viewers were all Kovalev fans right! You guys are the biggest jokes around!
GGG vs lemmy did 150k us buys, no idea if it was ppv in Canada also. those buys wouldn't be added on to our buys, lol at adding total buys between separate countries . I guess that's the level of fans we have on b24
GGG vs Lemieux was $49.99 sd, $59.99hd, Ward Vs Kovalev was $64.99 sd, $69.99 hd, now do the maths. Duva said they would be cracking the champagne at 250k buys, so 250k must be making the fight a raging success