PBC on NBC last Saturday afternoon drew a 0.69 rating per Nielsen. It is down from June’s NBC afternoon event. Also, PBC on FS1 this week was down in just its second live event on the network.
The main event last Saturday was Peter Quillin taking on Michael Zerafa with Quillin taking the fight by KO. The event went up against college football and US Open Tennis.
PBC on NBC
March – 1.08 rating, 3.4million viewers
April – 0.80 rating, 2.9 million viewers
May – 0.85 rating, ? million viewers
June 2015 – 0.95 rating (h/t Showbuzzdaily)
September 2015 – 0.69 rating
The ratings reflect the number of Nielsen members that had their televisions tuned into the event last Saturday. There was not a release of the actual estimated viewers from the event.
In addition, PBC’s second event on FS1 drew just 152,000 viewers. It’s a decrease from its first showing on September 8th.
PBC on FS1 September 8 – 184,000 viewers (per Sports TV Ratings)
PBC on FS1 September 15 – 152,000 viewers (per Sports TV Ratings)
Payout Perspective:
Perhaps we are seeing saturation of boxing events on television with these smaller events. Saturday afternoon on NBC is not the most advantageous spot during college football season as well as during the US Open tennis tournament. Also, the fact that it was the 5th televised boxing event that week prior to the Mayweather PPV probably hurt the ratings as well.
Eventually something is going to have to give here. I still can’t grasp how this is going to work itself out for PBC. I don’t know how much this hedge fund is willing to lose, but one must wonder how far they can take this. Are they willing to blow 1b? They are already at over 130m and have only been in business since March with mostly horribly low ratings to show.
Sportstvratings has the NBC afternoon card with Quillin at 1.2m viewers
Rafael reported yesterday Mayweather-pacquiao to be at 4.6m ppv buys
Eventually someone is going to have to admit that the UFC’s overall numbers are nothing compared to the overall numbers of PBS.
PBS has drawn about 6,5 million viewers in March and April. Similar numbers of viewers were drawn in May and June. That’s over 10 million viewers in 4 months. When was the last time the UFC had these many viewers?
He reported it, but didn’t research it. IE, he was relaying what the promotion claimed-specifically Espinoza who he is quoting all over the place on the article. He has done this before. It is clear ESPN does not want him challenging any of the promotions on their numbers anymore.
He did however mention his ppv contacts informed him on the Berto fight, which after posting the numbers and analyzing the card, he pointed out this was a money loser.
The trend is not a good one for PBC if they are looking for a distribution deal from one of the networks. And they are losing money trying to do the time buy. Add to it the fact that they may face a real challenge in court and I think the writing is on the wall.
Of course if they had better matchups they might boost their ratings and have a chance of surviving. But what the hell do I know.
D claims Rafael did no research for the 4.6m ppv but stands side by side with Rafael on the 550k ppv.
You’re an idiot if you think Rafael isn’t going to do research on the biggest and most lucrative ppv in sports history.
It did 4.6m. Deal with it. Shit you can say it only did 2m if you like, the UFC still isn’t touching it.
the greatest- i heard the fight with mayweather & Pac did 4.4 million. that was the preliminary number. did rafael update those numbers?
TG, you calling anyone an idiot is the height of hypocrisy.
Go back and read his articles from those numbers he published. He NEVER said my sources told me May-Pac did 4.4/4.6m. He was sourcing Espinoza and the promotion for those numbers. For Berto, he said as clear as day:
“PPV industry source on #MayweatherBerto numbers tells me they’re very poor relatively speaking. ‘Being generous is might hit 550,000 buys.”
Go find me a quote that is similar with him discussing May-Pac. He never does it.
The UFC/MMA is destroying boxing in ppv. The two sports aren’t even comparable really. Go through the last 9 years and see what the buys/revenue is like between the two. The UFC nearly doubles them. The only two ppv stars boxing has had over the past 7 years are both on their way out. They just had the biggest fight in the history of the sport by far and they still WON’T outdraw the UFC this year in ppv.
Deal with it.
FB, yes, Espinoza upped his lie 200k.
The UFC destroying boxing?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Mayweather vs Pacquiao drew over 4,5 million PPV buys! This is an all-time record as far as boxing is concerned. I’m no boxing fan but I’ll be damned if UFC trolls aren’t the most annoying fools I have ever seen. The more you try to reason with them, the dumber the conversation gets.
Remember when UFC 174 did only 90,000 PPV buys? Or when UFC 173 did less than 200,000? No boxing fan was going around claiming the UFC was dead. I didn’t even care, to be honest. But when a minor boxing event draws about 1 million viewers, UFC trolls start spewing the same typical BS about boxing.
Boxing ain’t going anywhere. Numbers and statistics don’t lie. It’s probably in the UFC’s interest to overshadow boxing, but what the UFC does is nowhere near as brutal and real as boxing. Boxing may require less talent, but it’s a lot more challenging and nowhere near as boring as having to watch two skinny models-turned-fighters spending most of the time trying to land a lucky punch or attempting failed take-downs.
So anyway, let’s all be nice and let the UFC fan(atic)s enjoy their delusion.
The UFC is not destroying boxing ppvs.
It took 9 UFC ppvs to equal 1 boxing ppv.
Whos really winning?
Mayweather-pacquiao revenue is about what the UFC will pull all year
Ouch. Not good for a PBC.
UFC PPV outdraws boxing PPV overall, and has for a while.
Trolls are out in full force and when I say trolls, I mean the same 3 or 4 idiots using alias accounts.
” Mayweather vs Pacquiao drew over 4,5 million PPV buys! This is an all-time record as far as boxing is concerned. I’m no boxing fan but I’ll be damned if UFC trolls aren’t the most annoying fools I have ever seen. The more you try to reason with them, the dumber the conversation gets.”
Funny, you are no boxing fan but you use an alias that is Boxing is here to stay. Haha. Boxing trolls equate one fight with two fighters- one of which is retired, the other which has 1 fight left before retirement and implies that is reflective of the rest of the sport.
“Remember when UFC 174 did only 90,000 PPV buys? Or when UFC 173 did less than 200,000? No boxing fan was going around claiming the UFC was dead. I didn’t even care, to be honest. But when a minor boxing event draws about 1 million viewers, UFC trolls start spewing the same typical BS about boxing.”
Boxing fans also like to fabricate numbers and cherry pick statistics. UFC 174’s ppv buys were 115k buys. UFC 173 did 215k. – all you had to do to fact check this is to go to the top of this site in the blue book. And you have to be blind, completely delusional, deaf or illiterate if you actually believe boxing fans weren’t saying the UFC was dead last year. The beauty of this website is you can’t delete your past posts- go back a year ago and check in the comment section what the boxing trolls(you were probably one of them) were saying about the UFC. All they would say is they are finished, mma is a fad, its dead, the sport is ending, etc.
Name a minor boxing fight that did a million viewers. Boxing tv viewership across the board has been horrible. There have been a few fights that did good numbers, but nearly every “big fight” they’ve had under-performed badly.
“Boxing ain’t going anywhere. Numbers and statistics don’t lie. It’s probably in the UFC’s interest to overshadow boxing, but what the UFC does is nowhere near as brutal and real as boxing. Boxing may require less talent, but it’s a lot more challenging and nowhere near as boring as having to watch two skinny models-turned-fighters spending most of the time trying to land a lucky punch or attempting failed take-downs.
So anyway, let’s all be nice and let the UFC fan(atic)s enjoy their delusion.”
Okay, get back to me in a few months where boxing’s biggest fights drop so drastically in terms of ppv buys it is unreal. You are going to see a drastic decline in ppv buys for boxing.
Also, nothing is more boring than watching championship boxing which involves two ego maniacal, idiots avoid throwing power shots, and turn into a track meet/jab/hugging fest, then complaining about a split decision that neither fighter deserved to win. Far more action in mma.
Nothing more delusional than the typical boxing troll. They travel far and wide to spread their delusions, trolling mma websites.
“The UFC is not destroying boxing ppvs.
It took 9 UFC ppvs to equal 1 boxing ppv.
Whos really winning?
Mayweather-pacquiao revenue is about what the UFC will pull all year”
Literally everything stated here is either completely false or a cherry picked exaggeration.
You have no shame.
Like I said, the more you try to reason with UFC trolls, the dumber the conversation gets.
Businessinsider(dot)com says Mayweather vs Pacquiao drew over 4,5 million PPV buys. It also says that both Mayweather and Pacquiao earned over $150 million after the fight.
But of course, the UFC’s trolls will probably start saying that business insider is wrong. At this point I’m just wasting my time. Got better things to do.
“Eventually someone is going to have to admit that the UFC’s overall numbers are nothing compared to the overall numbers of PBS.
PBS has drawn about 6,5 million viewers in March and April. Similar numbers of viewers were drawn in May and June. That’s over 10 million viewers in 4 months. When was the last time the UFC had these many viewers?”
Well, in the UFC’s defense, PBS has Big Bird, Bert & Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, plus Thomas & Friends, Wild Kratts, Antique Roadshow, Masterpiece Theater, etc. etc. Those are some seriously big heavy hitters.
“Like I said, the more you try to reason with UFC trolls, the dumber the conversation gets.
Businessinsider(dot)com says Mayweather vs Pacquiao drew over 4,5 million PPV buys. It also says that both Mayweather and Pacquiao earned over $150 million after the fight.
But of course, the UFC’s trolls will probably start saying that business insider is wrong. At this point I’m just wasting my time. Got better things to do.”
Like I said, boxing trolls use multiple aliases on mma websites because they are threatened by the reality that MMA is much bigger now.
Businessinsiderdotcom reports numbers that they asked the promotion about. Do they have access to the books from the event? Do they even know basic information about boxing event promotion costs/revenue streams. I’d be surprised if they knew anything about the subject. They are just a mouthpiece for people like Stephen Espinoza who is a proven compulsive liar.
Also, how do 2 fighters make at least 300m from an event that grosses roughly 300m? Seems like businessinder can’t count.
What seems to be confusing some people is I think Jason is mixing up the demo rating and overnight ratings.
For instance he lists in the March NBC debut a 1.08 rating,
http://ringtv.craveonline.com/news/385985-pbc-on-nbc-wins-18-to-49-demographic-on-saturday
The 2.38 million overall peak and 900,000 peak share for 18-49 is a dip from the 4.2-million and 1.08 million 18-49 peak peak for the final rounds of the March 7 Thurman-Guerrero fight, which was NBC’s first major primetime boxing
broadcast in 30 years since Larry Holmes vs. Carl “The Truth” Williams, on May 20, 1985.
1.08 number is the demo number.
Listed for the June afternoon event is a .95 number but thats actually the overnight number.
http://sportstvratings.com/afternoon-pbc-boxing-on-nbc-posts-a-0-95-overnight-rating-up-12/2644/
Premier Boxing Champions on NBC (3-4:30pm ET), featuring Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero’s split decision win over Aron Martinez posted a .95 overnight – up 12% from NBC’s prior PBC on NBC afternoon telecast on May 23.
This is confusing some people, they see a primetime rating do .80 and an afternoon card do a .85 and they see the primetime says it did 3 mill viewers so they think the other card must have done the same.
not the case because one is demo number and the other is overnight rating.
Like Greatest said the afternoon cards look to be doing in teh 1.1-1.3 mill range on NBC and CBS.
Whose word should we take? Business insider’s or d’s? I think I’ll stick with the former. Thank you very much.
More like who’s word should we take? Stephen Espinoza(via business insider) or someone who actually did the math.
I don’t have a track record of lying, Espinoza does.
Did you know that the MLB has a higher attendance overall than the NFL?
But the NFL is more popular, can anyone explain that?
Well the MLB has 162 games while the NFL has 16.
Sorta like the UFC has 13 ppvs while boxing has 4.
What happen last year when boxing put on 8 ppvs?
Yea they came out and spanked the UFC all over the board.
Boxing gets almost 3 time the viewership numbers the UFC does.
Add all the ratings of every UFC event this year and then go add boxings and what boxing smoke them.
Do you know TG analogy just blew up in his face? Well, it did.
Here’s the funny thing. It 2014, banner promotions in boxing had 7 major ppvs. In 2012,2013 and many previous years, boxing banner promotions only had 4 ppvs. Ironically though, in those years when they only had 4 ppvs, they did more buys/revenue then when they expanded to 7. Now how can that be, because according to TG, he claims the number of events is everything? As for the ppv buyrate for last year being the first time in 8 years that boxing did more ppv buys/revenue than the UFC, it was directly linked to their two biggest stars not fighting and nearly every major card being scrapped in injury. What is boxing’s ppv buy rate going to look like when Mayweather/Pacquaio are out of the picture? I’m sensing doomsday.
Bellator does better ratings than the boxing banner promotions. To compare boxing to the UFC in terms of ratings is a joke. The UFC’s network numbers demolish PBC’s.
Boxing fanboys suffer from delusions of grandeur.
I said boxings ratings not just PBC.
Boxing gets way more viewers than the UFC.
Also if were talking globally than you’d be lucky to say the UFC gets 1/10 of the viewership boxing does.
We can break down the numbers if you want?
PBC was an example I gave. UFC kills the rest of boxing in tv ratings. You are delusional.
I notice you were reluctant to comment on my point about boxing’s ppv expansion in 2014. How did they do less buys if they expanded? According to you, it is about the amount of events. So why did that happen?
ufc doesn’t even touch boxing globally lol, it is the #2 sport behind soccer.
“d on September 20th, 2015 6:30 PM
PBC was an example I gave. UFC kills the rest of boxing in tv ratings. You are delusional.
I notice you were reluctant to comment on my point about boxing’s ppv expansion in 2014. How did they do less buys if they expanded? According to you, it is about the amount of events. So why did that happen?”
—Boxing kills MMA in ratings. You know how many channels have boxing on compared to MMA? TruTV even has boxing on its programming. BET had boxing on earlier this year, etc… MMA doesn’t have enough shows to compete with boxing on a total viewership level and that’s not counting the Spanish channels. For instance, PBC on ESPN Santa Cruz-Mares peaked at 1.641M viewers, while at the same time on ESPN Deportes the fight had 453k viewers bringing the total to 2.094M that were tuned in.
You said something about boxing’s PPV expansion in 2014?
Boxing’s PPV model is different than the UFC model.
For one boxing is a sport and the UFC isn’t. Boxing doesn’t live and die by PPV.
What happen in (2014) is that Pacquiao and Mayweather did their worst PPV numbers in years. Mayweather had two ppvs that fell just shy of 1m, which isn’t the norm for him. Pacquiao had 800k and a 400k ppv. Canelo fought two guys with no drawing power, Cotto-Sergio drew ok numbers PPV wise, Froch-Groves pulled great numbers.
Having said all that they still out performed the UFC.
But heres the thing you tend not to notice about this. Boxing fans don’t care to buy PPVs to prove UFC fans wrong. They tend to buy events that they feel is PPV worthy. You have a delusion that boxing fans are sitting there finding ways to get ppl to buy PPVs so they can come on here and argue with you.
Boxing is established and is probably the most known sport in the world. You probably couldn’t find a person on the planet who couldn’t tell you what boxing is.
Fans were pissed when every Canelo, Pacquiao, and Mayweather fight was a PPV. People simply don’t want to drop that type of money 7-10 times a year, hence why the UFC has so many 100-200k ppvs.
But the UFC doesn’t have the outlet boxing has to put shows on TV.
UFC has, FOX, FS1, and is that it?
Boxing has HBO, Showtime, NBC, NBCSports, CBS, SpikeTv, ABC, ESPN, FS1, BounceTV, BET, TruTV, Spanish Channels, Im probably missing a few.
Why when you have that many channels would you want to piss off fans by having so many PPVs?
“—Boxing kills MMA in ratings. You know how many channels have boxing on compared to MMA? TruTV even has boxing on its programming. BET had boxing on earlier this year, etc… MMA doesn’t have enough shows to compete with boxing on a total viewership level and that’s not counting the Spanish channels. For instance, PBC on ESPN Santa Cruz-Mares peaked at 1.641M viewers, while at the same time on ESPN Deportes the fight had 453k viewers bringing the total to 2.094M that were tuned in.”
You don’t grasp the concept of how ratings or business works, so I don’t expect you to accept this. Who cares how many fights are on? No one watches most of them and they are bombing royally. Once in a while there is a decent rated fight in boxing in the US, but not often. To address your PBC nonsense- yeah they have a million fights, and they are also going to be out of business in a year.
“For one boxing is a sport and the UFC isn’t.”
That’s why I used the explanation of banner promoted boxing when addressing them. The UFC is the only big promoter in mma.
“Boxing doesn’t live and die by PPV.
What happen in (2014) is that Pacquiao and Mayweather did their worst PPV numbers in years. Mayweather had two ppvs that fell just shy of 1m, which isn’t the norm for him. Pacquiao had 800k and a 400k ppv. Canelo fought two guys with no drawing power, Cotto-Sergio drew ok numbers PPV wise, Froch-Groves pulled great numbers.
Having said all that they still out performed the UFC.”
Neither does the UFC. As a matter of fact, you could argue they are in a much better position domestically when it comes to tv seeing how they actually have a legit network tv deal and no boxing promotion does. The UFC has just as many revenue streams as the banner promotions in boxing.
Thanks for acknowledging my point which was it doesn’t matter how many events you have. The buy rates/ revenue are more connected to the quality of the fights and the drawing power of the sport. So you just acknowledged your previous point of the UFC doing more ppvs is irrelevant. That being said, the UFC after this year will once again outdraw the entirety of boxing in ppv buys and revenue for the 8th out of the past 9 years. Domination.
“But heres the thing you tend not to notice about this. Boxing fans don’t care to buy PPVs to prove UFC fans wrong. They tend to buy events that they feel is PPV worthy. You have a delusion that boxing fans are sitting there finding ways to get ppl to buy PPVs so they can come on here and argue with you.”
More like you are so delusional you think UFC fans are buying ppvs so that they can argue with you about the strength of the sport.
“Boxing is established and is probably the most known sport in the world. You probably couldn’t find a person on the planet who couldn’t tell you what boxing is.”
More delusions.
“Fans were pissed when every Canelo, Pacquiao, and Mayweather fight was a PPV. People simply don’t want to drop that type of money 7-10 times a year, hence why the UFC has so many 100-200k ppvs.”
Exactly. Thanks for proving my point again. Those low level UFC ppv’s barely draw and are barely promoted. You see, when you expand your ppv model, the numbers will go down on average because you are not going to have the star power for those lower level ppvs. Just like boxing wouldn’t. Imagine if Adrien Broner, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder, etc were fighting on ppv every fight- their ppv numbers would be dismal. Probably around 100k buys at best each- maybe even lower. Because boxing can sell very big ppvs, but struggles to sell mid level ones. It is very top heavy.
“But the UFC doesn’t have the outlet boxing has to put shows on TV.
UFC has, FOX, FS1, and is that it?”
The UFC isn’t the only promotion on tv. Bellator is on SpikeTV and outdraws major boxing leagues like PBC. Which is really pathetic considering the budget of PBC. Then there are WSOF, and a variety of others. Of course just like boxing, there are really only a few promotions that are relevant.
“Boxing has HBO, Showtime, NBC, NBCSports, CBS, SpikeTv, ABC, ESPN, FS1, BounceTV, BET, TruTV, Spanish Channels, Im probably missing a few.
Why when you have that many channels would you want to piss off fans by having so many PPVs?”
And they pay for half of them. Haha.
By the way, if boxing promoters could sell 6,7,8 ppvs of 600k or more like the UFC has the ability to each year, they wouldn’t be putting these fights on tv. PPV makes far more money.
What do you mean the UFC doesn’t live by the ppv.
The UFC use to be strictly PPV. Boxing was never like that.
Boxing figured out that you could get ppl to pay good money for the high priced fights. That’s why ppl get upset when they start forcing PPVs on the public.
Also the UFC doesn’t have near as many fights as boxing has.
Take this month of September for instance.
Only 2 UFC events for the entire month. 9 PBC events this month and that’s not counting all the other fights going on.
October, only 2 UFC events again. 6 PBC events for October.
HBO and Showtime go Head to Head in October, twice in the same day.
They both have fights at the same time on in the afternoon, and in the evening.
When has the UFC ever gone head to head with another MMA promotion?
So does boxing really need ppv? They have outlets. UFC has only 2-3 events per month and at least one is a ppv, so now try to tell me they don’t live by the PPV.
d on September 21st, 2015 4:32 AM
“….That being said, the UFC after this year will once again outdraw the entirety of boxing in ppv buys and revenue for the 8th out of the past 9 years. Domination.”
1 boxing ppv this year made more revenue than all 13 UFC ppvs this year combined.
You know that if boxing wanted to have 13 ppvs that they would outsell the UFC right?
They had 7-8 last year and smoked the UFC
“What do you mean the UFC doesn’t live by the ppv.
The UFC use to be strictly PPV.”
You aren’t even aware of the fact that you contradicted yourself within your own statements here.
The rest of your rants there about how many events boxing had I already discussed. If you are losing money and people aren’t watching your events, your argument is irrelevant.
“So does boxing really need ppv? They have outlets. UFC has only 2-3 events per month and at least one is a ppv, so now try to tell me they don’t live by the PPV.”
Yes, boxing does. If they did away with ppv or some form of paid viewership like WWE, their revenue drops off big time.
Also, the UFC is one promotion and they have roughly 4-5 events per month on average and only 1 is ppv.
Pretty much everything you state is a lie.
“1 boxing ppv this year made more revenue than all 13 UFC ppvs this year combined.”
False. Pure lies. First off, the UFC hasn’t had 13 ppvs yet this year and they already outdrew them in buys so far. As for the revenue, by the end of the year after those two huge fights, they will have outdrawn the entire sport of boxing in ppv revenue.
“You know that if boxing wanted to have 13 ppvs that they would outsell the UFC right?
They had 7-8 last year and smoked the UFC”
This was already proven false because when you expand your ppvs they thin out as you’ve even acknowledged unconsciously. Haha.
You said boxing doesnt get viewers yet the 5 most watched fights this year were all boxing matches.
These arguments are basically about ratings and viewership and its a fact that when the year ends, more ppl will have watched a boxing match than a MMA match.
Interesting facts about PBC and UFC ratings:
Average ratings for PBC in 2015: 1.10m per event
Average ratings for UFC in 2015: 1.15m per event
I included all televised UFC events in that number. That includes any PPV prelims that usually air on FS1. It doesn’t include the actual PPV buys. Just compared Network and Cable TV ratings.
Some of the PBC show ratings are bad (FS1) but to be on par with a very established brand like the UFC in the first 6 months of doing business is respectable.
I understand that the PBC spends a shit ton more in payroll but the production is that same as well as the marketing. If the PBC were to stick with 2-3 networks and have regular time slots then the ratings should go up.
“You said boxing doesnt get viewers yet the 5 most watched fights this year were all boxing matches.”
Again, you just lied. That is a false statement.
Yes, MMA dominates boxing in tv, ppv, merchandise, etc. The two sports aren’t close.
How does MMA dominant boxing on TV when boxing has more viewers?
Boxing doesn’t have more viewers though.
It does though.
Maybe ill add them all up 2nite for the hell of it
Na, it really doesn’t though.
Problem is, you can’t count. So it would be a waste of your time.
Top 10 most watched combat sport events in 2015
Boxing 3/7/2015 PBC NBC 3,400,000
MMA 1/24/2015 UFC Fox 3,049,000
Boxing 4/11/2015 PBC NBC 2,900,000
MMA 7/25/2015 UFC Fox 2,800,000
MMA 1/18/2015 UFC FS1 2,751,000
Boxing 6/6/2015 PBC NBC 2,500,000
MMA 4/18/2015 UFC Fox 2,430,000
Boxing 6/20/2015 PBC NBC 2,380,000
Boxing 5/9/2015 HBO HBO 2,100,000
Boxing 4/25/2015 HBO HBO 1,637,000
Mayweather-pacquiao should be at the top.
4.4M ppvs.
“yet the 5 most watched fights this year were all boxing matches.”
Your own source above directly contradicts this.
What’s amusing is usually when people research things and then realize it debunks their idiotic theory, they don’t bother to post it, yet you do with confidence. Hahahaha.
“I understand that the PBC spends a shit ton more in payroll but the production is that same as well as the marketing. If the PBC were to stick with 2-3 networks and have regular time slots then the ratings should go up.”
Chris, there is no reason to believe that. If that were true, then why wasn’t the debut’s ratings better? The truth is, they aren’t going to get better ratings unless they put their top 5 draws on network tv and that won’t happen because they can’t afford them. Then again, they can’t really afford to spend the way they do, so who knows. Regardless this is a disaster of an idea. I don’t see anyway the hedge fund recoups their investment. You can’t run a boxing league/promotion by spending 8m for a tv show with non top 5 talent. It can’t work. The ratings won’t be there to meet the costs. The UFC doesn’t put their top stars on FOX, their costs(as you’ve acknowledged) are literally probably a third of the costs of PBC’s shows and they are far better in the key 18-49 demo. That is how to operate a business properly.
d, I don’t know who Chris is.
I’m not saying that the PBC is doing a good job with matchmaking, showcasing or marketing its brand. The point I was making with showing the viewership averages (1.10 for PBC and 1.15 for UFC) is that people will watch boxing at the same rate as the UFC which does an extremely great job at marketing their brand.
They get virtually the same average viewership so why wouldn’t the PBC be able to get a deal similar to what the UFC got from Fox? Isn’t that what the whole point of this is?
“They get virtually the same average viewership so why wouldn’t the PBC be able to get a deal similar to what the UFC got from Fox? Isn’t that what the whole point of this is?”
Well, first off, that is not accurate. You are cherry picking statistics. I mean, Bellator literally has better ratings than PBC on Spike. You are taking PBC’s network numbers where we aren’t even a year in and comparing them to the UFC’s now on FOX which is silly because the UFC’s numbers topped off, just like PBC’s will eventually if they are still in business in a year or so.
Also, the UFC does better in the 18-49 demo which is much more attractive to advertisers.
But let’s say for argument’s sake their numbers are on par(even though they aren’t), you are missing a huge elephant in the room. A deal like what the UFC gets wouldn’t cover PBCs costs. They would be operating at a loss. Since March, they’ve burned through 130m of the hedge fund money. Their big shows can cost roughly 8m per show. This is the reason they can’t get a deal similar to the UFC deal with FOX. The stations would have to pay them probably around 3x what the UFC is getting with FOX and the ratings they are generating don’t warrant those levels of rights fees.
The issue with PBC is they are overpaying their headliners badly, their production costs are sky high(even though they are splitting the costs with the networks) and they have to pay a promoter per event just for putting their name on the card. It isn’t a sustainable business because boxing just isn’t popular enough.
The top 5 most watched fights this year are boxing, if we count globally.
Actually it would be the top 10-15 but I guess that isn’t really fair since MMA is no where near boxing in global terms.
But if were talking just the USA then boxing is still the top 2 most watched events, and 7/10 of the most watched events. So D you are wrong. Boxing gets more viewers.
Hahaha. You lie more than anyone alive.
“Well, first off, that is not accurate. You are cherry picking statistics. I mean, Bellator literally has better ratings than PBC on Spike. You are taking PBC’s network numbers where we aren’t even a year in and comparing them to the UFC’s now on FOX which is silly because the UFC’s numbers topped off, just like PBC’s will eventually if they are still in business in a year or so.”
I am not cherry picking events. I took every PBC event this year and every UFC event this year and got that number.
That by itself is cherry picking events. They don’t fight the same amount of times on the same networks. Compare Bellator to PBC on Spike and see who has better numbers.
Plus, you didn’t bother to read my point above which you quoted where you are taking PBC in is first few months and comparing them to UFC on FOX years into their deal where a promotion’s numbers are always going to be higher to begin with.
d, cherry picking would be me taking the best 5 PBC events, in terms of ratings, and saying the PBC averages 2.5m viewers.
If you want to compare apples to apples then the first PBC on NBC primetime events have averaged 2.9m and the first 3 UFC on Fox events (back in 2011/2012) averaged 4.2m.
The big difference is the UFC had 6 good years prior to the FOX deal to build its brand to get to that number where PBC is starting from scratch with mid to upper level fighters, not the biggest draws in the sports (Mayweather, Pac, Cotto, Canelo, GGG, etc.)
The UFC on FOX is down since then and is averaging 2.75 so far this year. The PBC has multi-year time buys with the networks they are on. If they can sustain around 2.5m viewers on primetime and 800k-1m on cable networks then there is no reason that they can’t get the same type of deal that UFC got. It’s the same ratings that the UFC is getting as a whole. The PBC would then have to figure out how to budget their money much wiser.