ESPN’s Dan Rafael notes that July’s HBO PPV featuring Terrence Crawford as he took on Viktor Postol drew between 50,000-60,000 PPV buys.
Bob Arum noted that a “stronger-than-expected” gate helped offset losses although he noted that Top Rank lost $100,000 on the fight. Arum noted in the ESPN piece that he wanted the fight to be on HBO but the network did not have the money in its budget to buy the fight.
Whether or not HBO did not have a budget might be based on who you ask. HBO did not provide comment on the brief article about the PPV buys. It could be possible that HBO simply passed on paying a rights fee for the fight. However, Crawford has been a mainstay on HBO and this was his first time on PPV.
Payout Perspective:
A generous PPV buy rate would mean that the July 23rd event drew approximately $3.6 million in gross PPV revenue. According to Arum, a strong gate offset losses which still amounted to $100,000. The numbers reflect the high cost for producing these type of events and also the need for star power to drive a PPV. Crawford is a fighter on the rise but he’s not a fighter than the casual fan would pay $60 for at this time. A fight with Pacquiao could have changed this and set him up to be the next in line. But, Pacquiao and/or his camp decided to go with Jessie Vargas. Notably, Top Rank will put on the Pacquiao-Vargas PPV as HBO has passed on it in favor of Ward-Kovalev later in November.
Sick of arum and his bum PPV’s. Glad Hbo is sticking it to him. Ward tickets are selling fast btw.
HBO is not the boxing program it used to be. They used to be the top in the sport globally, but I think the Showtime-PBC dominance is really starting to effect them, as is the fall of Golden Boy as a major promotion. Outside of Canelo, Golden Boy has no one. Arum will move to Showtime, which will now have Arum and Haymon and all the promoters that are in Haymons influence. Showtime will become the standard bearer for the sport. I read that PBC is moving into the British market to have shows on “terrestrial tv”….ie free network TV. If that happens, its over for HBO in boxing. But I agree fight fan, Arum has got to move out of the PPV model, that should be reserved for the “superfights” such as Kovalev-Ward or a Golovkin-Alavarez, a Wilder vs Joshua with proper promotion in the USA.
This should have been a regular fight on HBO, but they are putting all of their money into Game of Thrones, which is over after the next season.
Ouch.
HBO is never gonna go away in boxing. They still have alot of really good guys locked up but if Showtime can lock up Top Rank guys and PBC guys then they become the channel for boxing.
I still think PBC is done. I’ll their time buy deals are coming up and we’ll see how many networks they are still on by mid-2017.
Should’ve been on regular HBO.
Was a good fight and a good match up, just not the name recognition to have a ppv.
Crawford just needs that big fight to set him up for the future.
there was absolute no B side here Postol is not even close to a PPV level boxer. I think this was a must for Crawford to win vs a tough as nails Russian who nobody else wanted to fight. Bob had to spend some money here he’ll get it back in a couple yrs.
Crawford and a few of the kids around that division are starting to grow into PPV level boxers.
Plus in a yr or two Bob puts him in with Bradley Bingo he hits it again! Arum like it or not is the sport. There’s never been a rule book or corporate like structure to the boxing, like NFL NBA. and that is part of the attraction of the sport. Men of absolute Truth and sometimes that don’t sway with the writings of MAN. Just sayin. Manny was treated extremely harsh by the media. (I never read exactly what he said) but Koncz never called me to clarify what was said. The whole PPV fiasco could have been avoided. S
Wil that’s exactly the problem with HBO and Showtime today, they’re putting all of their money into these shows and it is gonna be their downfall. HBO is almost 2O bucks a month on directv. Back in the day it was like $5. I don’t mind the shows but I don’t wanna be the one that has to pay for it.
Game of thrones is the biggest show on tv or one of the top five. Hbo go has been a success for them.
Hbo/Time Warner should make a move for Ufc in 2018 and still keep boxing. Control both audience.
e tops is exactly right. Whether you watch Game of Thrones it’s a hugely successful show for them. I personally know more people that sign up for HBO to watch GOT then boxing.
As for the price that’s just inflation over time. I’m not stoked that HBO costs 20 bucks but Showtime/Starz are the same amount(at least for me). I mean it also used to cost 5 dollars to go see a brand new movie and now it’s like 15.
Those shows are why HBO is worth a lot of money now and when Fox was trying to buy Time Warner, HBO would have been sold separately, when The Sopranos hit in 99, HBO’S Boxing budget was $90-100 million a year now its probably $20 million, MLB, NASCAR & NHL are probably less popular than back then but their TV rights have went up.
A Boxing match usually doesn’t have much value after its been seen unless it’s a classic like Ali fights or Tyson beating up guys in the 80’s but even then it will just be ESPN showing it when nothing is on or on some cheaply made DVD set, that doesnt sell much compared to a long running TV shows box set by HBO.
It’s the exact same for MMA just in case anyone thinks I’m bashing Boxing
It was a mistake to put this fight on PPV. It lost money, no one got to see it and did nothing for the career of either fighter. It was a complete waste for all involved.
And lest anyone think I’m bashing boxing – I’m angry because I wanted to watch it live and was not about to pay for it.
Fight should have been on HBO, this wasnt a PPV headliner even though it was a good fight and the right fight to make.
Canelo/Smith shouldnt be on PPV either but that will do better cause of Canelo’s name, still not sure how well it does though, cant see it doing more than 350k if that.
Ward/Kovalev is a good one, looking forward to that. Only boxing PPV rest of the year worth buying.
Agreed on Ward-Kovalev. I’ll be paying for that one. Even though Ward is a boring fighter, I expect Kovalev to bring out the best in him and make it exciting.
The fight couldn’t be on HBO, They weren’t willing to pay that money.
The two guys were champions and the only way for both fighters to agree to fight each other was by upping their pay outs, otherwise they would have just thought mandatory defences for less money, HBO didn’t feel the fight was worth that money, thus they had no option but to put it on PPV. Pistol got his big pay day and Crawford now has a great win.
Good to see the “easy money” for PPV is now gone. The sooner PPV goes away completely, the better.
100% agree Random Dude, PPV is the biggest scam ever. Combat Sports actually cost money to be a fan and that is ridiculous
Fans don’t mind paying for 2 big fights per year. The problem with boxing is that the top stars is ducking each other, really no excuse Canelo and GGG couldn’t fight each other this weekend or next weekend for a huge payday. That match is actually bigger than Diaz/Mcgregor or anything UFC has to offer with the exception of maybe Rousey/Holm 2. I think maybe the powers that be think making the fans wait forever will garner a bigger buyrate ala Floyd vs. Manny.
not sure I agree tops, Canelo/GGG is big but dont think its as big as McGregor/Diaz.
Numbers just came out, McGregor vs Diaz 2 just broke UFC’s PPV record, looks to have done 1.65 million buys or more.
Canelo/GGG would top a million but doubt it gets that high.