ESPN reports that Spike TV will no longer air Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV which ends a two-year partnership to air PBC on Spike TV.
In March 2015, Spike TV launched “Friday Night Lights Out” with Glory Kickboxing, Bellator MMA and PBC with Haymon’s company as the big add to the network. According to Spike TV, a third-year option was negotiated was not included in the final contract.
Notably, Spike TV was not happy with the quality of PBC cards aired on Spike TV and the network wanted to commit to Bellator MMA.
The last PBC on Spike TV card aired this past January. The network stated that it is willing to revisit PBC and/or a boxing event but it looks like its combat sports programming will be limited to Bellator MMA.
Payout Perspective:
It’s interesting that Spike was frank about the quality of PBC cards. Most of PBC cable cards are now airing on FS1. The best PBC on Spike TV did on the network was its March 2015 debut when it drew 869,000 viewers. The ratings have struggled to grasp a consistent audience with its events on Spike TV. The network, which ended its relationship with Glory, now seems to be making a concentrated effort into Bellator MMA. Will this equate into a push for bigger ratings and more sponsors? We shall see.
Bellator on the rise
Spike is right, there were maybe 2 PBC cards on that network that were good and those being khan vs Algieri and a Broner card as I remember. PBC needs to concentrate on NBC, FOX, and CBS…..where the big ratings are, and have been. When PBC takes to the networks it’s the highest rated Combat sports event there is
And yes bellator is killing it….well done to them
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Who didn’t see this coming?
Well, probably Will who thinks PBC cards outdraw UFC on FOX fights.
Bellator> PBC
hanson, stop mentioning my name bro….your a man, not a woman. Hopefully you want nothing i got.
Hahaha. Wil’s self destructing. Reality has set in.
The article on ESPN mentioned that NBC is done with PCB as well.
“The best PBC on Spike TV did on the network was its March 2015 debut when it drew 869,000 viewers. The ratings have struggled to grasp a consistent audience with its events on Spike TV.”
That’s what happens you put on crappy cards. People stop watching and wind up missing the good cards. The product was way too inconsistent to build up an audience and the ratings reflect that. I hope PBC has learned. I think their cards so far this year have been significantly better – though I’m not sure about profitable. We’ll see what the future brings but the combination of too many networks and too many suspect matchups was never going to be an audience building strategy.
That’s just the issue. The good matchups they put together get good ratings, but not in relation to how much money they are putting up. When these events cost them 4-5m in purse money, not to mention all of the other overhead, it is very difficult to turn a profit.
The UFC was putting up bigger numbers- especially in the key demo, on FOX with lower costs and lower profile fights. That’s how you can survive. Attempting to outspend your competition never works in combat sports.
How to recoup 4 B? Hahaha….
4 billion dollars tv deal
Tops, even if for some reason WME couldn’t recoup 4b, there are going to be many takers attempting to buy those 3 letters. PBC will be completely worthless when they finally close up. Hahaha.
Not bringing a guy back after a big win or “investing” in good B C level matchups hurt the bottom line Ratings it’s the ABC’s of boxing USA network did it years ago. Alex the Hammer Garcia a heavyweight was groomed to get a shot at George Forman until he was upset by Joe Hipp. A country especially this one gets behind a long shot that can win. If a Bellator champion switched over to boxing started beating a few guys then some noise and ratings might start up ticking.
What would that state about boxing if they need mma stars to draw ratings? Perhaps they are better off just sticking to mma and drawing bigger ratings there. This is simple mathematics, Bellator was doing great, while PBC was not.
Spike needs to get rid of Kickboxing as well, seriously their roster isn’t great, they seem to only exist so Bellator can run. Hungary & Italy, they could run, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands, a few Eastern European countries like Poland, Russia and several former Soviet countries.
I also hope Spike adds more variety when they become Paramount.
Bellator mma and KB are doing awful ratings.
Spike is barely even on most cable outlets now. Alot of companies dropped them, hence them not getting big PBC cards.
The channel is going under but still said that they will show PBC cards when presented with big fights.
PBC doesn’t care tho. They wanted CBS the entire time, and they got it.
D you should be worried about the only single star left in the UFC, doing everything in his power to not fight in the UFC.
The UFC is doing dreadful numbers right now.
Has the ufc even had a ppv in like the last 3 months?
Caramel City, nice try. Bellator is doing very good numbers.
If Spike isn’t even on most cable outlets(which is probably not even true considering the source), that would speak volumes about how well Bellator is doing, considering their big ratings on the station.
PBC does care, because the writing is on the wall that they are going out of business.
I’m really looking forward to all of the boxing fanboys reaction when they finally announce they are done. It is going to be amusing watching them scramble for excuses.
The only single star left in the UFC??? Uh, Jon Jones, GSP are still fighting last time I checked. Not to mention it is much easier for the UFC to create stars than boxing. Speaking of which, I think you should be worried about the fact that the biggest star in boxing can’t break 400k buys.
The UFC is doing such dreadful numbers right now that since the fight that ended boxing ppv- the May-Pac fight, the UFC has done 7 ppvs that went over 1m buys. Boxing has done zero and hasn’t even come close.
When was the last time a boxing ppv broke 200k buys? Hahaha.
Also- one more thing, PBC does not have CBS. They pay CBS to air their fights. It is a time-buy deal. The Spike deal was the only rights deal they actually had other than(Showtime- which as far as I know was just a fight-by-fight basis).
“Spike was also the only nonpremium network paying a rights fee to PBC for the shows it was putting on, usually a low-six-figure amount to help supplement the often seven-figure costs of the cards. PBC had time-buy arrangements with its other nonpremium cable partners, including NBC, ESPN and Fox.”