The HBO replay of the Canelo Alvarez-Liam Smith fight drew 459,000 HBO subscribers on Saturday night according to Sports TV Ratings.
The replay was the only fight as there was no live event to go along with the fight. It drew another 216,000 viewers in the adult 18-49 demo.
Alvarez stopped Smith in the 9th round before over 51,000 at Texas Stadium.
Despite the big crowd, the early indications of PPV sales appear to be less than 300,000. However, there is a report that the event was seen by 18 million viewers in Mexico on free television via Azteca 7.
Notably, Alvarez’s fight this past May versus Amir Khan drew 767,000 HBO subscribers on the replay and 339,000 in the A18-49 demo. His Miguel Cotto replay drew 901,000 HBO subscribers. The Cotto replay was aided by a live fight while the Khan fight stood alone.
Payout Perspective:
On a night when the UFC did really well with its Fight Night event from Brazil, the PPV replay of Canelo Alvarez garnered less than 500,000 subscribers and was from its last two replays on the network. This has to be due to the opponent and perhaps Canelo has yet to draw a huge base of fans from the casual American viewer.
Boxing isnt UFC, where people tune in no matter what. Boxing fans will punish you by not watching. Canelo is going to have to fight, and beat convincingly, some top shelf type of fighters. No one, I mean no one, wanted to see him take on Liam Smith…..but look at the HBO turnout on Kirkland….
PBC is over: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/9/27/13074448/boxing-news-is-the-end-near-for-premier-boxing-champions-pbc
Wil, the HBO replay did a decent number for an outcome that already happened. The Canelo-Kirlkland fight did 2.3m viewers but it was live and not a re-showing.
And PBC is not done. NBC announced a couple days ago that they will have a few shows in the beginning of 2017 and more through out the year.
Dude, PBC is done, it’s breathing its last few breaths right now. I’m a hardcore boxing fan and even I can admit that. I just saw a twitter post yesterday that talked about top-level PBC fighters looking for fights with other promoters.
PBC needs to die in order for boxing to survive. The amount they were paying fighters was WAYYYY above their market value. it’s going to get ugly for awhile, with more of top boxers not fighting each other because they got X million to fight a bum, so now want much more to fight someone dangerous. but eventually, their asking price will hopefully come back down to reality and fights can start getting made. I’m all for boxers making money, especially with the risks they take, but it’s gotten to the point where promoters are struggling to turn a profit from it. they’ve got to find a level ground where both the boxer and promoter make a good cut off the shows.
And btw, this is not only PBC’s fault. This started long ago with HBO overpaying fighters, and it’s just gotten really out of hand.
Despite the big crowd, the early indications of PPV sales appear to be less than 300,000. However, there is a report that the event was seen by 18 million viewers in Mexico on free television via Azteca 7.
That sounds right. If the fight had been free, I would have watched it live. But make boxing fans pay $60 to watch Alvarez fight a nobody and you can’t be surprised when nobody watches.
PBC is on it’s last legs. They have a huge roster of top fighters who aren’t fighting anybody. That’s usually the beginning of the end.