PBC on CBS this past Saturday peaked at 5.1 million viewers during the 12th round between Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia according to Nielsen. The main event, overall, drew 3.74 million viewers.
The overnight viewership revealed it drew 2.7 million viewers on CBS and outdrew the NBA on ABC.
The numbers make it the most-viewed boxing event in primetime since 1998.
Notably, last year, the Errol Spence, Jr.-Leonard Bundu fight which aired on NBC after the Summer Olympics gold medal game involving the U.S. That fight drew 4.8 million viewers with a peak of 6.34 million but aired on a Sunday afternoon with the peak occurring during the opening minutes of the fight.
Payout Perspective:
Great numbers for the CBS card last Saturday. Unlike Spence-Bundu, it seems that that people gravitated toward Thurman-Garcia. It was a good matchup that was promoted well and shows that there is still interest in boxing when good fights are made.
Cruz does this number also factor in the DVR numbers as well? Outstanding numbers especially when the weekend before did 2.5m viewers tops. CBS has to be loving both it’s network partnerships with PBC.
Heads up on Richard Schaefer and Ringstar Sports looking to make a move with both Al Haymon and Saurland Sports fighters for a massive global tournament
http://www.ringtv.com/488371-schaefer-announces-ambitious-50-million-tournament/
Wow, massive numbers. Imagine a broner vs thurman fight. Boxing has some legit stars and the fans are in for some good fights. Shout out to pbc, showtime and CBS for the promoting they did.
Well said Fight Fan. Haymon, CBS, Showtime have to look at Broner as a future opponent….properly promoted, that fight sells itself to a massive crowd. The All Access shows would be popular, the tweets and facebook posts would be hilarious, the press conferences would be epic…that fight does 6m viewers easy.
I do not think Thurman sells right now as an A lister. the fight itself was a 5 out of 10 Danny Garcia is not finished. He may get Broner or Spence before Thurman does. Much Much bigger ratings to come in the future. As the public becomes more aware to what PBC is. Yes I too wish the fights were as good as EVERYONE was saying there were going to be! Could the statement below describe the Watsons?
“Any artist out there that wanna be an artist, and wanna stay a star, and won’t have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the records, dancing — come to Death Row!”
What do you guys think about Schaefer’s plan with Saurland for a 50 million dollar multi continental tournament? He is in speaks with Haymon and Showtime…wouldn’t it be something if he were able to get a couple more unaffiliated promoters to commit….Top Rank and Matchroom out of the UK. That Super Middleweight tournament a few years back was a huge hit in Europe and the USA.
Hi Joey, lets not forget how Thurman hit what 4.3m in the initial PBC show in 2015, and his fight with Porter as well…the only one that didn’t break 2m for him was the ESPN show vs Collazzo
This fight lost money. The 18-49 demo was not good relative to the overall ratings and the gate for this fight was less than a has been Holly Holm vs no named opponent fight at Barclay’s. That’s the reality of the situation.
PBC has lost hundreds of millions and are actively being sued by investors and the manager is being investigated by the SEC.
This was a horrendous venture and even in their “big ratings” tv fights, they lose money.
D trying hard to restrain himself on a pbc article….he wants to write long essays hahahahahahaha
A lot of promoters globally.pbc is just one of them…good thing nobody owes 4 B? Hahaha
“What do you guys think about Schaefer’s plan with Saurland for a 50 million dollar multi continental tournament?”
Sounds like 50m down the drain. Haha.
Topps, every boxing promotion globally combined couldn’t borrow 1b, let alone anywhere near 4. They aren’t in the mma business. Hahaha.
He cant help himself guys….the kid is off his meds and trolls to be negative, there is a clinical issue there
Cotto/Thurman probably the best fight to make right now PPV I think I can be done soon.
Haymon and Roc Nation dont like working together but im sure if the money is there, and it would be, that can happen with a co promotion….would be great to see Roc Nation step away from HBO more and do business with the Haymon influenced promotions. I think the skies the limit on Thurman though, he seems to be gold and has the personality to sell product
To be honest though, doesnt really look like the Haymon influenced froups are really looking to do PPVs like Roc Nation, Golden Boy, and K2 are
By the way Cruz, good covering lately of PBC and Bellator, your website has become one of the “update” websites I check regularly for combat sports.
Oh and gents, looks like CBS may be becoming the alternative to PPV when it comes to Haymons biggest matchups.
The PPV era is dying, I rarely order boxing ppvs anymore and I have not ordered a UFC ppv in 3 years myself…time for promoters to take the product back to the people and stop demanding fans pay to be combat sports fans. If figure skating, golf, tennis, european soccer, etc can be shown non ppv…the fight game can as well.
http://www.boxingscene.com/sho-espinoza-says-more-cbs-televised-fights-possible–114436
Of course boxing promoters are going to move towards tv fights, they can’t sell ppvs anymore. The UFC can. Half of their business revolves around it. It would be insane to move away from that. The business model dictates it, so if the UFC moved away, someone else would take over.
Also, you may find this difficult to grasp, but the world doesn’t revolve around you and a biased sample size of one doesn’t really qualify as an accurate study. PPV is still alive and very well and if anything it is only increasing with the access that consumers have these days to it as opposed to years ago where the majority did not.
What a surprise the angry kid posts after me lol…..I’m so surprised. Anything for self esteem right?
Global truly global schafers new venture money money money hahahahaha
What a surprise, some boxing propagandist continues to get angry when someone points out his ridiculous and false statements.
Schafer is going to form u.s. Europe type promotion,sponsorships and tv deals from diff countries….he will co promote with haye in the u.k. And people from this new venture are swiss based entertainment company and a scandanavian tv network…and he has his ringstar in the u.s.,…smart move
They’ve been talking about moving away from ppv for years now. Finally they have a way of getting out.
@do
The ufc has to be on ppv. They don’t have a choice. Boxing can operate without it.
Caramel City, Bellator is making more money these days than those boxing promotions you are talking about and they do not have a ppv model.
The state of boxing without ppv right now is literally in Oscar De La Hoya’s words at an all time historic low.
Hayman/PBC, Schaeffer, etc are all attempting to do what the UFC has done. They aren’t there though. They wish they had a deal like the UFC has with FOX. They wish they had a reliable source of income from ppv, and they no longer do. There is a reason why the UFC sold for 4b, they make crazy money as opposed to those boxing promotions that make a fraction of that and basically lose money every time they host a fight in North America.
Hahahaha D simply cant resist the long essays hahaha..
No he can’t and it’s odd bro absolutely odd….the obsession with boxing is comical and clinical at the same time. He posts under boxing articles just to attack the sport….and I am convinced he really does think he is making money from UFC. I’m telling you that kid is certifiable
@D
No one cares if the boxing promotions make money or not. Your trying to angle the argument into a different direction.
Boxing isn’t structured the way mma is.
You want to compare promotions, but if we compare fighters under those promotions, the boxers blow the mma guys away.
Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman made $2M each.
Only Conor makes that much.
Canelo makes more than Conor. Khan, Joshua, Fury, Cotto, Klitschko, Manny, Marquez and Bradley at times have all made more than every ufc fighter ever.
Boxing does more views than the ufc.
Boxing makes more revenue than the ufcs.
This is all true.
Boxing is bigger and more popular than mma.
Simple as that
I think this fight made money. With those viewership numbers it’s hard not to. I don’t think every PBC show makes money (some absolutely stink) but if you put good fighters on – Thurman-Porter, Thurman-Garcia, etc. – then you can get the ratings, and make some money.
The Wilder fight probably made money too – it got pretty good ratings considering that Wilder was fighting a nobody.
I was at the wilder fight with ringside seats that certainly were not cheap for the average citizen…and we were mingling with James Prince and others from the hip hop business scene and one representative from the Birmingham mays office who was selling her spiel on future fights in that city….the Westin was packed andni have the photos to show it all. That Wilder fight was huge formthat city, people flew in from European nations as well as New Zealand. PBC has momentum, anyone denying that is doing it out of motives
If Schaefer gets Golden Boy and Top Tank on board then this might be the biggest thing in global boxing im years
http://www.boxingscene.com/schaefer-open-working-with-arum-de-la-hoya-wbss–114445?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
“No he can’t and it’s odd bro absolutely odd….the obsession with boxing is comical and clinical at the same time. He posts under boxing articles just to attack the sport….and I am convinced he really does think he is making money from UFC. I’m telling you that kid is certifiable”
The very think you do with the UFC and clearly you are a neurotic under contract with creepy Arum. Hahaha.
@ Caramel City,
Okay, so you aren’t really aware of how business works. You should care about how much money they make, because if they are not making money, they go out of business, which is what is happening to PBC. The reason they’ve been able to exist for as long as they have, is because they had a massive hedge fund investment where it isn’t some average company or few investors dishing out the money. Eventually, you can only lose so much money.
Also, overpaying your fighters doesn’t mean the company is making more money. As I’ve pointed out, in this case, they are actually losing money. The UFC could pay their headliners 4m+ for tv cards, but they’d lose money and eventually go under.
“Canelo makes more than Conor. Khan, Joshua, Fury, Cotto, Klitschko, Manny, Marquez and Bradley at times have all made more than every ufc fighter ever.
Boxing does more views than the ufc.
Boxing makes more revenue than the ufcs.
This is all true.
Boxing is bigger and more popular than mma.”
Every comment here is completely false. Hahahaha. McGregor is the highest paid fighter in combat sports, he makes more money than Canelo, or anyone else, the UFC is destroying everything related to boxing and they bring in more money than all boxing promotions combined.
Diego(not attacking you because you are the one objective boxing fan that comments on here), but how do you think this event made money?
You have to keep in mind this was a time buy deal, the purses were roughly 5m plus they had to kick back some of the sponsorship money to the headliners. Then they have to pay the promoter(because PBC is fronting the money and the promoter in this case is not really the promoter, but for legal reasons they technically are), then you have to deal with big taxes being in NY, big insurance costs, licensing, sharing some of the production and promotional costs, etc. The gate for this was probably less than 2m, there is no ppv, no big named international stars, ie no big int’l tv contracts, and the only significant stream outside of the gate was the ad money brought in.
The entire cost for an event like this was probably around 7-10m. There’s no way they received something like that in ad money. Probably at best, half of that. I can’t imagine a scenario where they turned a profit.
d – I get what you’re saying, I’m certainly not claiming to know the financials. But a 5M peak, along with the gate and sponsorships I think should cover the costs which are about ~$5M in purses. I’m not claiming it as a fact, nor am I saying that Haymon can retire on the proceeds, but it should be profitable.
Looking at it from the other side, if it wasn’t profitable then fold the tent now because it never will be.
Wil, PBC has momentum, but that’s not enough to be consistently profitable. I’m curious as to what their burn rate it. I don’t imagine they are in the black on every show. At some point they will have to be, or they will go under. The question is, can they parlay that momentum into sustained revenue growth? The jury is still out on that one.
D is putting in overtime on damage control
Conor is not the highest paid athlete in combat sports.
Canelo or Klitschko is.
McGregor makes over 10m per fight and it is only increasing. He made an estimated 15m against Diaz. He makes most of his money in bonuses, most notably ppv points. Fighters like Canelo do not make money on the back end because their ppvs don’t generate enough revenue. His last 2 purses were 3.5m guaranteed. He doesn’t make anywhere near what McGregor does on the other side. McGregor’s ppvs do well over 1m buys, Canelo’s do around 350k.
Klitschko doesn’t even fight on ppv and unless some Russian billionaire sponsors his fights, he makes less than 10m per.
Canelo did 600k ppvs against Khan and made over $10m
Mayweather has already stated that Conors never made more than I think $7m.
Cotton made $15-$20m when he fought Canelo.
Klitschko made over $12m for his fights.
Who’s after Conor in the payroll.
Why don’t you name the top 20 earners in the UFC and then name the top 20 in boxing.
By the way Canelos guarantee was higher than Conor.
Hahahah Mctapper makes pennies compared to the highest boxers. D is desperate
I’m not 100% sure but it would seem to me that this card probably lost money. Ad revenue is likely less than 100,000 dollars per 30 second ad. based on what shows shuch as the big bang theory get (350k per ad with an average of 15+ mil viewers)
I didn’t see the card so I don’t know how many ads were shown but I would be surprised if they showed enough ads during the main event to cover the purse.
does anyone know what the gate was? i can’t seem the find it.
@tj not sure if gate has been announced by this article on Boxing Scene seems bullish on it http://www.boxingscene.com/thurman-garcia-big-financial-hit-barclays-center–114308 Read another article that its anticipated to surpass the $2.28M the UFC did this past March at Barclays.
Diego, yes sir, PBC needs to expand that is clear, none of its shows on network prme time EVER need to be doing less than 2m viewers, that is never a guarantee but it can be helped by correct matchmaking for the main network shows while keeping the less than stellar matchups for ShoBox and Fox Sports 1.
I will say one thing, these PBC articles are proving to be VERY popular here on this website.
In terms of money, its no argument where the biggest money is made. If one can only name one big money making athlete in one sport has double digit numbers of fighters on multiple continents who have fought for 7 figure purses, its not even worth the digital ink. Joshua and Klitscko are splitting a 40m dollar purse while having sold out all 90,000 seats at Wembley stadium. GGG routinely sells out his fights at Staples and elsewhere, I was at the Canelo vs Kirkland fight in Houston which was 31,000+ and did over 2m viewers on HBO….that’s where we are.
D, you just need to come to grips that the sport you hate so much isn’t going anywhere. No matter how much you complain, get up to histrionics and drama, boxing isn’t going away.
This article from a couple of years back truly nails it.
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/5/3/8539635/ufc-mma-fans-stop-declaring-the-death-of-boxing-mayweather-vs-pacquiao-editorial
http://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/20/boxing-not-dead/
“Canelo did 600k ppvs against Khan and made over $10m”
False. The ppv was estimated to have done in the range of 375-460k buys. The number you put up there was just a promoter’s fabrication. Canelo did not make over 10m, that would be insane for a ppv which drew so little. His purse was 3.5m. He probably only made a few million more with ppv/Mexican tv.
“Mayweather has already stated that Conors never made more than I think $7m.”
Hahahaha. Right, because Mayweather, a guy who can’t read or write, who claimed he didn’t even know who McGregor was up until recently, all of a sudden has McGregor’s tax returns and pay checks. That’s great. Keep it up. There’s no way he’s made less than 10m for each of his last two fights. His ppvs draw too many buys.
“Cotton made $15-$20m when he fought Canelo.”
Miguel Cotto is practically retired and 4 out of his last 5 fights, he made less considerably less than 10m.
“Klitschko made over $12m for his fights.”
Only when some Russian billionaire wants sponsors his fights. It’s pure charity.
Fight Fan is the poor man’s Topps.
HAHAHAHA!!!
“I will say one thing, these PBC articles are proving to be VERY popular here on this website.”
Because the boxing t.rolls come out of the woodwork to defend it to the death. Haha.
“D, you just need to come to grips that the sport you hate so much isn’t going anywhere. No matter how much you complain, get up to histrionics and drama, boxing isn’t going away.”
More like you are simply aligning yourself with the delusional fanboys who can’t accept the reality that the sport is literally at an all time low in North America. Boxing ppv was the worst it has been since practically its inception last year and that is what drives the sport. Even De La Hoya admitted it. That should end the argument right there. Look at Mayweather- he’s doing press conferences and pushing his promotion in the UK, NOT the US! Bellator puts up bigger numbers on cable with mediocre headliners than big named boxing headliners for PBC. It’s not even close. PBC will go down in history as one of the biggest, if not the biggest sports financial disasters. When all is said and done, they may wind up losing something like a billion dollars if they keep going. Any objective person can see it.
TJ, just for reference, the Thurman vs Porter fight at Barclay’s did a 1.1m dollar gate with about 25% less in attendance than Thurman-Garcia. It would be hard to believe this exceeded 2m at the gate.
I do agree also, I can’t imagine a scenario where this event made any money considering the high costs involved.
Ppvs don’t drive boxing.
Boxing historically only has 4 ppvs a year.
Ppvs don’t drive boxing.
They drive the UFC but not boxing
Even wwe isn’t doing ppvs anymore, all about their network. And they created the PPV lol. Ufc is done without that ppv income, 4 billion needs to be paid.
PPVs do drive boxing. There is a reason why once their ppvs stopped selling, the ratings have plummeted everywhere. It isn’t just about making money for those events, it’s about drawing interest to the sport and that is basically gone.
If WWE could generate half of the ppv revenue that the UFC does, they’d be doing it in a heartbeat right now. By the way, the UFC does both, they have Fightpass and ppv…and why not, they are both very profitable?
Also, the UFC would not be done without ppv. Way too much money and interest in mma. It could affect WME, but not the UFC brand name. That’s worth more than every boxing promotion combined.
Lol they just put on a 5 million viewer show and hold the record for the biggest ppv ever only 2 years ago. Keep dreaming d.
…..AND LOST MONEY!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
PBC going under, boxing ppv gone, Showtime and HBO both drastically slashed their budgets, ratings across the board in the toilet, every promoter fleeing to Europe, and De La Hoya pointing out that last year was the worst in the history of the sport….that’s the state of boxing.
20 years from now, FF will be bringing up the May-Pac fight which is pathetic because even with that fight, boxing still didn’t outdraw mma in ppv buys that year. Hahaha.
Boxings at an all time high in the UK. That’s why you have so much attention over there.
PBC and CBS are going to be partnered up. That’s already been discussed. CBS will get the big fights while the rest get delegated to ESPN or FOX if that works out.
Showtime as well.
It’s not at an all time high in the UK and even if it were, that market is a fraction of what the US/Canada market is.
PBC and CBS are not partnering up. These are time buys, plain and simple. There are no legit tv contracts in place like they anticipated. Also, PBC has lost hundreds of millions of dollars so far in this venture, there are investors who are suing them, the SEC going after them, I can’t imagine this going on too much longer.
over 60 responses, amazing how popular Cruz’s boxing posts are isnt it. In fact the other posts concerning MMA dont seem to get a fraction of the responses…..and so well written too…..I wonder why that is? As Arsenio Hall used to say, “things that make you go hmmmmmm…..”
….because of the boxing t.rolls. If this was a typical boxing site, no one would even comment, because they wouldn’t be able to t.roll anyone.
The boxing fanboys who have littered this site came over initially when there were few boxing articles on here. You have joined the likes of Topps, congratulations.
Hahahaha. D still at it….4 B down hahahaha
lol….does he in any way sound like a sane adult?
D you have zero proof the show “lost money”
The place was packed and did high ratings. End of story.
Unless you can see the books and prove otherwise all signs point to a success.
Mayweather is back folks. Expect him to fight Canelo in September if canelo wins in May.
D is all over the yahoo article doing damage control on there as well lol
Hahaha really? Ill check yahoo hahaha
Yes the article about mayweather returning. He is going on his usual about how boxing ppv is bad blah blah blah. He can’t handle the fact that mayweather is about to come back.
Impressive numbers
Hahahaha. The stalkers are uniting. Seems like Wil has become the 3rd member of the boxing quack pack! #Nutjobs.
So D is really a propagandist of the UFC hahahahaha….pbc sets him off…a dw manchurian candidate hahahaha
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PnuXelvWA dw and D
http://www.abae.co.uk/aba/index.cfm/news/sustained-success-in-growing-participation-sees-boxing-rewarded-with-a-26-increase-in-funding/…..even grassroot amateur growing hahaha
Topps self destructing. Nonstop posting ever since boxing’s ppv disappeared. Hahahaha!
Boxing doesn’t live an die by the ppv d. Ufc does.
Fight Fan, Canelo might be a bit too big for Mayweather now, is money coming back as a jr middle? He was always a smallish welterweight who I always thought could fight at JrWelter even later in his career
TOPS E, are you in the UK? The UK boxing scene is massive. If you are, I lived in London for just under a year, York Hall at Bethnal Green for boxing, if you have not experienced it, do so….nothing like it. Its like boxing in an old Victorian British setting.
That by the way is a nation that is owning the sport at the moment, makes sense as that’s where it started. I am not surprised its amateur program is booming, I see the same thing happening with Ireland with the Conlan brothers and Katie Taylor. Even Wales has a world champion with Lee Selby, who just left Matchroom and now totally in the stable of Al Haymon.
and yes, D is a clown. Carry on.
Hahaha. Wil sees eye to eye with Topps…speaks volumes.
Boxing ppv hasn’t disappeared.
The UK has their own ppvs over there and in America we have GGG/Jacob’s, Top Rank ppv, Canelo/Chavez, Ward/Kovalev, Pacquiao/TBA.
That is all between March and June.
GGG/Jacobs will do 200,000
Top Rank ppv will do 50,000
Canelo/Chavez 500,000
Ward/Kovalev 2 250,000
Pacquiao/TBA 300,000 at least
Wil it’s unsure right now, he keeps calling out McTapper but we all know that fight won’t happen. Makes me wonder if he would fight pac again now that his fight with khan fell through.
Carmel City, something tells me the Canelo vs Chavez fight will do more and be the highest of the set PPVs so far. We have two Mexicans fighting…one arguably one of the best 5 fighters on the planet and then the other the son of a living legend to Mexicans and more importantly Mexican Americans who are the #1 fight fan group in the USA. I hate ppv…I detest it….but even me and my clan are having a fight party for that one, either at one of our houses or reserving a room/tables at a sports bar. It is impossible with that fight= lack of action.
I dont think Ward v Kovalev sells well due to Ward’s style and lack of proper promotion of Kovalev but that is definitely high level boxing right there.
Wil.. nope not in england just following british boxing, a lot.of talent over there right now…..
Think pac and mayweather 2 is going to happen,both of them hyping fights with other people and nothings happening…so much money at stake its bound to happen
Well this fight did better than I expected. Good stuff.
Another potential HUGE match that Im sure CBS would be interested in, the Mexican American viewership skyrockets the ratings if promoted properly…their first fight was an absolute WAR!
http://www.boxingscene.com/leo-santa-cruz-vs-abner-mares-rematch-ordered–114617?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
28,000 arena in Sheffield, I suspect this fight sells out in no more than 72 hours
http://www.boxingscene.com/kell-brook-errol-spence-27-bramall-lane-close-done–114594