In case you missed it, PBC on NBC Sunday afternoon drew a huge rating for the Errol Spence, Jr.-Leonard Bundu fight. The event drew an overall average viewership of 4.8 million viewers and a peak of 6.34 million making it the highest-rated PBC fight since its inception.
As noted by ESPN’s Dan Rafael, the fight aired on NBC after the U.S. Olympic gold medal basketball game between the U.S. and Serbia. The one-hour show was in between the Olympics on the network which may have attributed to the huge ratings.
Payout Perspective:
The large numbers can be attributed to the fact that viewers did not turn off their television despite a blow-out in the gold medal basketball game. It’s the best ratings for PBC and Spence is a boxer that could see more spotlight fights for the organization.
Once again, brilliant strategy by Haymon and DiBella on this one, it could not have been played better. We see that for the big NBC fights on PBC, placement and advertising is ultra important. That PBC card was in the right place at the right time….their marketing team should study this and do future projection of when to show their fights. Worth noting, since no one really wants to talk about something so politically incorrect, that much of this viewership was likely black American since the audience for the NBA all star team competing in the Olympics would have been….that is a traditional boxing supporting inner city demographic and THAT is the demographic boxing needs to stick with….inner city black and Latino Americans. The suburban white dollar is largely (and militantly) in support of UFC…not mma (it doesnt always translate to Bellator and certainly not WSOF or others) and has largely walked away from boxing. Haymon got the right time, on the right day, with the right audience, and lets face it….got the right result. Had it been a boring snooze fest for 12 rounds, it would not have grown or retained the audience. Another reason why its important to not just make good fights on PBC, but more importantly good MATCH UPs. Case in point why matchmaking is so infinitely important in boxing.
No matter what, this is proof that the “boxing is dead” call by a certain type of UFC fan that litters the blogosphere is worth about as much as a barrel of s**t to a shoe salesman.
Its a great number but did they promote anything to those 6 million viewers? Do they gain anything from this?
Consequently, this is EXACTLY the ABC Wide World of Sports model that used to come on Saturday mornings and afternoons in which much of the boxing I grew up watching in the 70s through the 90s. It was surrounded by other sports for 3 hours…you could see boxing, golf, nascar, etc etc.
Haymon is smart, no one can take that away from him.
Man, Monster card for PBC. Big things to come for sure.
“The one-hour show was in between the Olympics on the network which may have attributed to the huge ratings.”
May have attributed? Seriously? That fight in the same timeslot this Sunday does 1-1.5 mill tops, probably closer to 1 mill than 1.5 actually.
Really smart move by Haymon but its simply a one off, they’ll never hit those numbers again and doubt Spence Jr’s next fight does any sort of big rating.
You suggesting that Olympics direct cause of the huge numbers right, Chris. So, your only beef is that I put “may have attributed”?
Very smart programming and great exposure for an exciting fighter.
Chris regardless people could have easily turned the TV off or watched anything else. Point is 6 million watched one way or another. It’s all about the bottoms line at the end, not how you got it.
Great numbers. Spence can only benefit from that many people seeing him fight.