With Manny Pacquiao returning to PPV Saturday night, the standard question of whether PPVs are worth it surfaced.
In a Newsday column published this week, there are quotes from both boxing and UFC executives which address the question of PPV as a viable platform. The conclusion appears to be that it takes a big event for people to purchase PPV. This is something most of us already knew. The column acknowledges that with the internet and social media, there are more ways to follow a PPV card without purchasing it. Also, more people are content with highlights they may be able to obtain legally online.
UFC exec Marshall Zelaznik is quoted in the piece and stated that it’s up to the UFC to “figure out how to create and develop content that will make people not want to miss it.” He went on to say that the UFC has to do “the right job to respect the consumer, to give them something that’s valuable and worth paying for.”
Dana White recently acknowledged this year’s PPV buy rates have been low and Floyd Mayweather’s PPV reputation has been affected with the underwhelming business done under the Showtime banner (except of course for The One). Still, one big PPV event can mean a major windfall for the company.
On Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao is on PPV once again against an unknown in Chris Algieri. Conspicuously, there has been little done in terms of promoting the fight. Unless it has gone under the radar, there are no Tecate promotions and $25 rebates this time around. The usual three rounds of HBO 24/7 has been limited to just one. Even the replays of past Pacquiao fights have been limited on HBO and the Audience Network as Bradley-Pacquiao II is replayed. Additionally, Algieri-Provodnikov has been replayed.
Payout Perspective:
There’s nothing new in the column related to the current state of PPV except the quotes from the execs. It’s clear that the challenges of getting fans to buy PPVs are getting harder considering the amount of content out there, social media and the ability to see highlights that will satisfy one’s need to watch the event. Are there too many PPVs? Boxing has added several PPVs to the mix this year which may sway your mind about that question. Certainly, many MMA fans have their opinion on the UFC PPVs. As for Saturday’s event featuring Pacquiao, it will be interesting to see how many Pacquiao die hards will pay the $70 to watch.
Manny is done unless he fights floyd. promotors are being smart and not pissing money away like drunk sailors. Maybe a new ppv star will be born tonight who knows. Tide is shifting and people realize that Manny and Floyd are on their way out. PPV is too expensive, everyone got greedy. 30-40 bucks and watch the numbers climb. Try a 19.95 ppv and see what happens. 70 bucks too much for this fight!!!
Completely agree with Saldathief. I think PPV can still be relevant. I’ve seen a GSP PPV in a theatre in Montreal years ago, I watched a Mayweather PPV with friends last year.
1- The card has to be worth it and there has to be a star we really care about.
2- The price has to be cheaper than they’ve been in the past year.
as a long time fight fan, etc, this has gotten beyond redicolous, i remember in the 80’s and 90’s forsay
if you purchased a boxing ppv, it was stacked and had 3 to 5 championship fights that i wanted to see,
and was only 20 bucks, i even remember when ppvs got to 50 that was when mike tyson got out of prison.
and dont even get me started on only having to pay 25 for a stacked pride ppv
I agree with Sal. $70 is a lot. Arum has already shifted his revenue focus with Manny from PPV buys to the site fees in Macau – hence the lack of promo for the PPV. When the promoter of one of the most exciting boxers tacitly admits that the fighter can’t draw PPVs anymore you have to figure that the business model is in trouble.
Does this mean we’ll see a push for boxing to go back to network TV? I would be up for that.
Boxing flows like water… it goes where the money goes
Can we stop with this utter bullshit that the PPV model is dead? This comes from soar losing UFC fans that cant handle the fact their “growing” sport cant rarely get good ppv numbers.
Mayweather vs madiaina 1 & 2 averaged over 900k buys.
Pac vs Bradley did 750 k buys and had zero fucking undercard.
The model is dying because there are no good undercards or fights taking place. Put Ward vs GGG, canelo vs Cotto, Mayweather vs Bradley for 50.00 and you will see strong numbers. It just needs tweaking thats all. and no more than 4ppv’s a year.
Fightbusiness with more of his nonsense. That sport which according to you “cant rarely get good ppv numbers” outdrew boxing in each of the last 7 years.
D, still living in the last decade! Advice, don’t go through life driving,looking through the rear view mirror. I know you probably never rode in a real car but think of it in terms of your family bicycle! bahahahaha
@fightbusiness you do realise that Pacquiao and Algieri are boxers?
UFC has had the highest PPV event in the past year with UFC 168. Although they are underachieving in there numbers that moron saying that UFC can’t attract buys then talk about the Maidana and Floyd fight comes across as a dope
D- UFC beat boxing in ppv for several years simply because they were new and exciting and would have events on all the damn time. They also hired Lesnar. Now that people are use to it people are not going to fork over cash nearly as much. Boxing fans also hold out on ppv’s because they can watch the fight for free a week later and the sport rarely gives good undercards.
Jessie- of course I know Pac and Algeri are Boxers. What do you mean?
Saldaqueef equates 1 year to 10, he is an dirty geriatric.
Fightbusiness, the UFC has been around for 21 years now. There is nothing new about it. Lesnar was not the deciding factor for outdrawing boxing in ppv. The numbers were skyrocketing prior to him ever fighting. Liddell-Ortiz II did over a million buys prior to Lesnar even being a thought for fighting in the UFC. The biggest reason for the dropoff was the insane amount of injuries. Their two biggest stars also were not fighting in 2014. The numbers will be back to normal in 2015, however, of course, the ppv industry is slightly down over the past few years as a whole- we’ve seen it with 3 out of the last 4 Mayweather fights. But they will be above what boxing does in 2015 and then you will come up with a new reason for why this is happening.
boxing will double ufc in 2014 and 2015! In 2015 D will be a paid blogger for TMZ bahahaha D you sound so desperate and stupid, I know you are worried losing your only job! I hear Dana needs someone to wash his car! bahahahah
Remember when Sal forgot to change his name back from “tops E” and responded to someone as tops E. What a blunder!
yeah
Again, Sal doesn’t know basic math. He is a boxing welfare to work homo for Bob Arum. This filthy dirty old geriatric has nothing better to do with his time than troll mma websites.
D- Injuries in the UFC will unfortunately become the norm not the exception because so many weapons are being used (leg kicks, knees, etc). Remember they faced alot of injuries as well in 2013 (Rashad Evans, Shogun). The UFC could do well if they didnt have so many injuries and only had one event a month but they agreed to put out a ton of programming for Fox so I cant see that happening. When all cylinders are running well I agree the UFC can compete with Boxing. However I cant see that happening any more (for the reason stated above)
By the way Algeri made 1.6 million and pac 25 million not including PPV upside. Dana White: “We saw everything Boxing did and chose to do the opposite” LOL you sure did dana. You sure did.
Ahahahahaha.
Dana is a PINK PIG. He ain’t looking smart at all these days. Fuck em.
🙂
Fightbusiness, you are making things up. In 2013 they did not face a fraction of the injuries they faced in 2014. There were zero fight cards cancelled. Every belt was defended at least 2x last year. There were minimal major injuries. 2014 was beyond a fluke year. By the way, leg kicks, knees, etc. have been in use since the inception of the UFC back in 1993. This is nothing new.
Haha. Pacquaio after all is said and done did not make that kind of money because he invests his own money into the event, he may take a loss from the ownership side of things if the ppv didn’t draw well. That beings said, to be fair he still made a ton of money. But he is one of two fighters who make 10 plus million per fight.
D- No ppv’s were cancelled in 2013 but alot of the fights on ppv were changd at the last minute. kicks and knees have been used since 1993 and thats why no one had a long career or made a lot of money in th 90’s.People started making some money after Dana White came in and altered the rules. I dont recall Pac saying he is investing in this fight. The bottom line is his base salary is 25 million dollars which is ridiculous. He is one of two fighters to make over 25 million a fight not 10. Cotto ,Canelo , Klitschko Froch and Hopkins have also made over 10 million in at least one fight as well.
FightBusiness,
It’s true that Algieri made $1.6M for this fight, but he only made $100k for the Provo fight. And that was a main event on HBO if I recall correctly. He’ll never see close to $1.6M again.
Diego- he only made 100k because absolutely no one knew him when he fought Ruslan. He will consistantly make over 400 k a fight from here on out.
Fightbusiness, you literally just make things up. Give me some examples of card’s headliners that were altered in 2013. There were no high profile ones that were that I recall.
“kicks and knees have been used since 1993 and thats why no one had a long career or made a lot of money in th 90’s.People started making some money after Dana White came in and altered the rules.”
Hahahahahahahaha!!!
Okay, so first off, Dana White didn’t do shit to the rules. Anytime he has said that publicly people should have called him out on his bullshit. He had political connections that got them back on ppv and a ton of money they threw into it marketing the events as a sport and not a bloodbath like SEG did. The unified rules were enacted prior to Zuffa’s takeover. As for the lengthy career nonsense, where do you get this stuff? Do you know how many fighters fought well into their 40s that were first generation fighters from the 90’s? The list is endless. Those guys weren’t making big money like today because they didn’t have the audience. It had nothing to do with the rules/injuries.
Also, I said 10m plus consistently, not to mention of course those fighters either co promote or are associates which is the same as co promotion where they invest their own money into the event. And yes, MP Promotions did co promote his fight with Algieri, it is right on the press release.