Thread: UK soon to lose all Terrestrial tv Boxing.

Not good news

As Setanta battles on, but it's not all good news on the television front though, as ITV – as I mentioned last week – are pulling out of boxing, leaving the sport without a terrestrial television presence.

And� think it’s a disgrace that the BBC aren’t getting behind the fight games, especially when it’s got a proven track record of delivering big numbers - and it's one of our most successful sports.

Khan’s fights on ITV pulled in six or seven million viewers even when they were on late at night, and the BBC could be equally successful if it made an investment in the sport.

There are some great people at the BBC who are keen to get involved in boxing again, and they are exasperated by the attitude of their bosses, who just don’t want to know.

This week, there’s been complaints from the Beeb about having to share up to £100m of the licence fee with rival operators, including helping to fund ITV’s regional news output.

But if it actually delivered what audiences wanted – and I’m talking specifically about boxing – then it wouldn’t come under attack.

***

A certain boxing writer did one of his typical doom and gloom pieces about the state of boxing this week.

I'm fed up with people knocking the sport at the moment, and while times are hard, if big fights get made there is no doubt they sell.



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Ever since ITV decided to bring back boxing its been nothing short of a farce.

They had a few special nights early on with calzaghe and khan then ever since have gone into complete oblivion screening only domestic fights.

Boxing will ALWAYS be on tv in the UK because it`ll still never lose its niche audience. Friday fight night is one of the highest rating shows on sky and setanta rightfully took advantage of britains lust for boxing by showing endless american cards.

This time next year there will be the same amount of boxing on tv regardless of the fact setanta go out of business!!

yeah but your missing the point of it no longer being shown on Terrestrial tv which is why the likes of Froch (Our only World Champ) can't even get to be seen like the Taylor fight.

Khan would never be as popular as he is now without ITV launching him through prime time ITV Sat night slots where anyone could tune in for free

Originally Posted by smashup

yeah but your missing the point of it no longer being shown on Terrestrial tv which is why the likes of Froch (Our only World Champ) can't even get to be seen like the Taylor fight.

Khan would never be as popular as he is now without ITV launching him through prime time ITV Sat night slots where anyone could tune in for free

ricky hatton became a household name without ever fighting on terrestrial

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

Originally Posted by smashup

yeah but your missing the point of it no longer being shown on Terrestrial tv which is why the likes of Froch (Our only World Champ) can't even get to be seen like the Taylor fight.

Khan would never be as popular as he is now without ITV launching him through prime time ITV Sat night slots where anyone could tune in for free

ricky hatton became a household name without ever fighting on terrestrial

True but i think his style of fighting and largely his Personality helped him loads.

Froch has the Personality of a Door

Originally Posted by smashup

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

Originally Posted by smashup

yeah but your missing the point of it no longer being shown on Terrestrial tv which is why the likes of Froch (Our only World Champ) can't even get to be seen like the Taylor fight.

Khan would never be as popular as he is now without ITV launching him through prime time ITV Sat night slots where anyone could tune in for free

ricky hatton became a household name without ever fighting on terrestrial

True but i think his style of fighting and largely his Personality helped him loads.

Froch has the Personality of a Door

If there is genuine talent around and he is contracted to a cable company like sky/setanta he`ll make a name for himself regardless of whether he is on terrestrial.

Lets face it 90% of fight fans have access to these channels anyway and would far prefer to watch the latest goings on on the likes of sky sports rather than watching emmerdale farm.

I put froch being unknown down to him being with hennessy and itv. If he had been a regular with sky still or a setanta boy he`d be much better known right now!

Hatton is a one in a million job. Plus he had all the Manchester support from the early days (Farnel, Gomez, etc) who all used to fight on the same bills making them massive.

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

Ever since ITV decided to bring back boxing its been nothing short of a farce.

They had a few special nights early on with calzaghe and khan then ever since have gone into complete oblivion screening only domestic fights.

Boxing will ALWAYS be on tv in the UK because it`ll still never lose its niche audience. Friday fight night is one of the highest rating shows on sky and setanta rightfully took advantage of britains lust for boxing by showing endless american cards.

This time next year there will be the same amount of boxing on tv regardless of the fact setanta go out of business!!

Have you got some figures?

I'm surprised if Friday Fight Night does great numbers, considering most of the shows are pretty crap. Think darts pisses all over it.

Just makes me wonder if we'll ever get the 15 Million days of Benn v Eubank back?

I mean the whole f*cking country was talking about those fights back in the day and everyone knew them.

Agree Hatton is a special case.

Originally Posted by Fenster

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

Ever since ITV decided to bring back boxing its been nothing short of a farce.

They had a few special nights early on with calzaghe and khan then ever since have gone into complete oblivion screening only domestic fights.

Boxing will ALWAYS be on tv in the UK because it`ll still never lose its niche audience. Friday fight night is one of the highest rating shows on sky and setanta rightfully took advantage of britains lust for boxing by showing endless american cards.

This time next year there will be the same amount of boxing on tv regardless of the fact setanta go out of business!!

Have you got some figures?

I'm surprised if Friday Fight Night does great numbers, considering most of the shows are pretty crap. Think darts pisses all over it.

theres no substanance to darts though is there?

Snooker in the 80s got 3 times the audience a boxing contest on itv got. Doesnt make it the more popular sport just the greater fad at the time.

Darts wont be pulling in 20000+ to an arena in 20 years time, boxing will still be here when we are all long dead!

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

Originally Posted by Fenster

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

Ever since ITV decided to bring back boxing its been nothing short of a farce.

They had a few special nights early on with calzaghe and khan then ever since have gone into complete oblivion screening only domestic fights.

Boxing will ALWAYS be on tv in the UK because it`ll still never lose its niche audience. Friday fight night is one of the highest rating shows on sky and setanta rightfully took advantage of britains lust for boxing by showing endless american cards.

This time next year there will be the same amount of boxing on tv regardless of the fact setanta go out of business!!

Have you got some figures?

I'm surprised if Friday Fight Night does great numbers, considering most of the shows are pretty crap. Think darts pisses all over it.

theres no substanance to darts though is there?

Snooker in the 80s got 3 times the audience a boxing contest on itv got. Doesnt make it the more popular sport just the greater fad at the time.

Darts wont be pulling in 20000+ to an arena in 20 years time, boxing will still be here when we are all long dead!

Snooker still does great numbers. Think it's only second to football.

Have you got the FFN figures? I'd be interested to see just how many people are tuning in. I remember once seeing the figure average below the 100,000 mark. Can't be sure though.

Originally Posted by Fenster

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

Originally Posted by Fenster

Have you got some figures?

I'm surprised if Friday Fight Night does great numbers, considering most of the shows are pretty crap. Think darts pisses all over it.

theres no substanance to darts though is there?

Snooker in the 80s got 3 times the audience a boxing contest on itv got. Doesnt make it the more popular sport just the greater fad at the time.

Darts wont be pulling in 20000+ to an arena in 20 years time, boxing will still be here when we are all long dead!

Snooker still does great numbers. Think it's only second to football.

Have you got the FFN figures? I'd be interested to see just how many people are tuning in. I remember once seeing the figure average below the 100,000 mark. Can't be sure though.

read an article several months back about how jon thaxtons european title defence had been the most watched show on sky sports that day exceeding even the weekly rugby league contest which is watched like a religion in yorkshire and lancashire.

As for the snooker being only second to footie?? you serious fenst? the sport is virtually bankrupt because of the fact it cant pull in the fans/viewers anymore and is even considering switching 15 reds to 5 reds just to bring back the audience.

That was on ITV 4 i thought
From that shitty showground venue?

Could be wrong

Originally Posted by smashup

That was on ITV 4 i thought
From that shitty showground venue?

Could be wrong

its on sky as well

for some reason right now people enjoy watching 20 stone, tattoo-clad, lager louts throwing arrows at a board!

I dont mind it being the current catch of the day...but please lets not refer to it as a "sport"

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

Originally Posted by Fenster

Originally Posted by hattonthehammer

theres no substanance to darts though is there?

Snooker in the 80s got 3 times the audience a boxing contest on itv got. Doesnt make it the more popular sport just the greater fad at the time.

Darts wont be pulling in 20000+ to an arena in 20 years time, boxing will still be here when we are all long dead!

Snooker still does great numbers. Think it's only second to football.

Have you got the FFN figures? I'd be interested to see just how many people are tuning in. I remember once seeing the figure average below the 100,000 mark. Can't be sure though.

read an article several months back about how jon thaxtons european title defence had been the most watched show on sky sports that day exceeding even the weekly rugby league contest which is watched like a religion in yorkshire and lancashire.

As for the snooker being only second to footie?? you serious fenst? the sport is virtually bankrupt because of the fact it cant pull in the fans/viewers anymore and is even considering switching 15 reds to 5 reds just to bring back the audience.

Snooker still draws in regular 2-3m viewers on the BBC. Their problem is they are way down on their heyday (10m) so the sport looks bad in comparison. But it still pisses over most other sports. The 6 reds thing was just an idea - like the cricket stuff and prizefighter.


Smashup means Thaxton is on ITV4. Be best if someone found some proper figures