HBO’s president of pay-per-view, Mark Taffet, said that the Manny Pacquiao-Brandon Rios fight in Macau on November 23rd did “in the neighborhood of 475,000 buys” as reported by USA Today. Taffet also said that it generated “roughly $30 million of PPV revenue.”
Taffet indicated that overseas PPVs do between 30% and 40% of the buys compared to those events in the US. Taffet said, “It was an extraordinary effort by everyone involved, and we recognized that anything above 350,000 buys would be a success.”
Pacquiao has averaged over 1 million PPV buys in his last 9 fights which makes the Rios fight the lowest PPV buy output since his 2008 Oscar de la Hoya fight. His fight with Joshua Clottey was the previous low at 700,000 PPV buys.
Payout Perspective:
Did Top Rank really think 350,000 PPV buys would be a success? It’s interesting that in October Arum indicated that Marquez/Bradley would be a success if it hit 350,000 PPV buys. I don’t think the two events had similar expectations.
The PPV buys are disappointing if you compare the last several years of Pacquiao’s PPV fights. His popularity and fighting style drew fans but a disputed win to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2011, followed by a loss to Timothy Bradley and a KO by Marquez in 2012 which left Pacquiao face down on the canvas are all reasons why Pacquiao’s brand has taken a downturn. Brandon Rios was a relative unknown to the casual boxing fan which added to the obstacles of selling the fight. Of course, Taffet’s explanation that overseas events do far less is another excuse for the poor showing. In addition, the lack of promotion in the United States, sponsorship activation and overall buzz did not help.
Top Rank had flirted with the idea of holding events in Macau to open up the Chinese market. It knew of the obstacles an overseas PPV presented but decided to take the chance with the company’s biggest star. While it may have succeeded, it is taking a short term hit in the form of low PPV buys. We will see if Pacquiao’s next fight (likely against Timothy Bradley) takes place in Vegas.
Boxing is never going to be honest. Everyone knows there were not expecting 350 or even 475. Clearly the fight being overseas killed PPV buys. But they need to own up to it. We all know they were hoping the overseas event wouldn’t have any effect at all. I expected 600. I think anything less was a disappointment.
Arum is investing long term….I’m more interested on what impact did the fight generate on the Asian gambling market….when pacman fights in Vegas he brings in the Asian high rollers…now that it’s held in Macau there should be way more high rollers placing bets in turn would generate a demand and hike up the “on site fee” of top rank from Macau casinos….top rank has a February promotion for zou shimming…
Pacquiao’s star has faded due to his recent losses which has brought on a sense that he is past his prime. Though many feel he beat Bradley many also felt he should have two straight losses to Marquez.
And the serious boxing fans understood Rios was not on Pacquiao’s level. Basically only the most diehard Pacquiao fans bought this.
This fight being overseas was the least of it’s problems.
I agree with Jack. You can’t keep putting top guys against nobodies and expect to continue to generate high PPVs, couple that with the fact that Manny had two straight losses and at some point people aren’t going to fork over $65. However, based on this performance, I do think that Manny will do better in his next PPV since the word is out that he’s “back”. At least when facing slow guys who come straight at him.
What arums after…the gamblers in asia
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/manny-pacquiao-v-brandon-rios-multimillionaire-veteran-hits-macau-the-new-vegas-8958341.html
@Diego,
I agree. Although I admit to be a Pacquiao fan, his opponents have been handpicked to accentuate his skills and/or they are lesser opponents: David Diaz, Joshua Clottey and Ricky Hatton come to mind.
This is so odd…of all fights, how was the De La Hoya fight his previous low over the past few years? And 475k, that is shockingly low. I say shocking because when the retarded Mosley fight did its 900k or whatever, I thought “OK, Manny officially has the most loyal and/or retarded fans in the game.” And I’m a Manny fan btw. It just made me genuinely mad so many would fork over so much money for an absolute piece of s— fight.
Ratings for replays of the 4 PPV shows: Floyd-Canelo 1.1mm, Pac-Rios 1.1mm, Floyd-Ghost 733k, Bradley-JMM 729k
https://twitter.com/KevinI/status/409075272927834113
Despite split with Golden Boy, HBO still dominates cable ratings in big boxing year
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/despite-split-with-golden-boy–hbo-continued-to-dominate-cable-ratings-in-banner-boxing-year-204009683.html
@AK The De La Hoya fight did 1.25 million apparently, I think he was talking about the fight before that, he did 250,000 buys Vs David Diaz. He was under 135lbs for most of his career before the Oscar fight but did pretty big numbers against legends like Barrera & Morales.
The Ricky Hatton fight did well in the UK but not anywhere near as well as Hatton’s fight with Mayweather which did something like 1.2 million buys in the UK.
That’s close to what Arum predicted, around 490K buys. I don’t see how this would be a disappointment considering the opponent and that it was held outside the US. I’m sure the risk/reward assessment was done and boxing seen this as some kind of test for the international market. So all in all, a good year for boxing PPVs. Must be higher than 2012? Anyone have the stats?
@duck Thanks for clearing that up, dude. Figured as much.