What kind of ratings did Mike Tyson's fights on HBO pull? (especially against Berbick

All right. This is the best I can do for you.

"Last Friday's Mike Tyson-Larry Holmes fight on HBO drew a Nielsen rating of 34, meaning the fight was seen in 34% of the pay service's 16 million homes. It was a record for an HBO fight, shattering the 27.9 for Holmes' second fight with Michael Spinks in April, 1986."
http://articles.latimes.com/1988-01-29/sports/sp-26312_1_super-bowl/2

 

Nice find.

 

It was seen by 34% of 16 million homes, which means it was 5+ million homes. HBO didn't even have half of 34 million subscribers.

 

I wouldn't get overly excited about that.

Hamed, Benn, and Eubank regularly fought in front of a 25 million TV audience in Britain before PPV came into the mix. So all things considered 25 mill out of a population of 70 mill compares quite favourably with 34 out of 400 million.

 

He didn't reach 34 million. He had a nielson rating of 34 which is 5+ million. If it were national TV, it would've been way higher.

 

I don't know but I was one of the gullible who watched that snooze fest.

 

Did these 28 million have to pay to watch the fight? I ask because Fox is owned by Murdoch, ( since 1986 I believe ) the same guy who's Sky TV has gradually taken over most televised sport worth watching in Britain, and they DO have to pay.

 

Just their regular cable bill. Fox is a cable channel that comes with basic cable. There is no special subscription like HBO, thus it is available to anyone with cable TV. When Tyson got out of prison and resumed his career, Fox started a rather short lived attempt to televise Boxing. As I remember, all of the cards were promoted by Don King. The Tyson fights got great ratings, but the others didn't do so well and Fox dropped boxing by about 1997.