Are PPVs ruining boxing?

[Rantcatrat]

2014 already has more PPVs lined up than almost any previous year. Between January and July, there are 6 ppvs. That's a PPV per month.

Canelo vs. Angulo
Pacquiao vs. Bradley II
Mayweather vs. Maidana
Martinez vs. Cotto
Canelo vs. Lara
Junior vs. GGG

It's unfortunate because (1) it limits growth and (2) it requires boxing fans to pay a large amount of money to watch fights. To grow, boxing needs to appeal to as large a section of society as it can. The audience for a PPV is limited. Imagine how many people would watch Floyd if he fought on a regular network for one of his fights. Consider that HBO has 1.1 million people tune in for a Kovalev fight and HBO is a subscription based network.

At $70 per HD PPV event, if you bought every one of the above fights, that's $420 in addition to the cable subscription fees of $10-$15 per month per channel. Annually, before you include the prices of tickets for boxing events, it comes out to around $500. A basketball or soccer fan pays nothing to be fan. And they wonder why boxing is a niche sport?

[IamInuit]

Yes.

[Violent Demise]

2014 already has more PPVs lined up than almost any previous year. Between January and July, there are 6 ppvs. That's a PPV per month.

Canelo vs. Angulo
Pacquiao vs. Bradley II
Mayweather vs. Maidana
Martinez vs. Cotto
Canelo vs. Lara
Junior vs. GGG

It's unfortunate because (1) it limits growth and (2) it requires boxing fans to pay a large amount of money to watch fights. To grow, boxing needs to appeal to as large a section of society as it can. The audience for a PPV is limited. Imagine how many people would watch Floyd if he fought on a regular network for one of his fights. Consider that HBO has 1.1 million people tune in for a Kovalev fight and HBO is a subscription based network.

At $70 per HD PPV event, if you bought every one of the above fights, that's $420 in addition to the cable subscription fees of $10-$15 per month per channel. Annually, before you include the prices of tickets for boxing events, it comes out to around $500. A basketball or soccer fan pays nothing to be fan. And they wonder why boxing is a niche sport?

Fighters make more money on PPV. After everything was added up Saul Alvarez took home around 5 to 6 million for the Angulo fight. If that fight wasn't on PPV he would of only took home 1.3 million. It makes sense to put it on PPV. As long as fights turn a profit they'll be on PPV

Obviously I would rather have the fights on regular HBO/ShowTime. But that's not the case. Not everything is free. I'm not gonna not watch the fights. So I'll just pay for all of them and watch them. Really it's not even all that much.

[Mark TKO]

Yes

My interest has waned over last 3-4 years as I now don't pay for ppv fights or even see them if its on one of the subscription channels.

On saying that I am going to pay for Froch Groves II.

And I'm a fight fan - how is the casual fan ever going to come on board ?

[Violent Demise]

Yes

My interest has waned over last 3-4 years as I now don't pay for ppv fights or even see them if its on one of the subscription channels.

On saying that I am going to pay for Froch Groves II.

And I'm a fight fan - how is the casual fan ever going to come on board ?

That's there problem.

[Rantcatrat]

2014 already has more PPVs lined up than almost any previous year. Between January and July, there are 6 ppvs. That's a PPV per month.

Canelo vs. Angulo
Pacquiao vs. Bradley II
Mayweather vs. Maidana
Martinez vs. Cotto
Canelo vs. Lara
Junior vs. GGG

It's unfortunate because (1) it limits growth and (2) it requires boxing fans to pay a large amount of money to watch fights. To grow, boxing needs to appeal to as large a section of society as it can. The audience for a PPV is limited. Imagine how many people would watch Floyd if he fought on a regular network for one of his fights. Consider that HBO has 1.1 million people tune in for a Kovalev fight and HBO is a subscription based network.

At $70 per HD PPV event, if you bought every one of the above fights, that's $420 in addition to the cable subscription fees of $10-$15 per month per channel. Annually, before you include the prices of tickets for boxing events, it comes out to around $500. A basketball or soccer fan pays nothing to be fan. And they wonder why boxing is a niche sport?

Fighters make more money on PPV. After everything was added up Saul Alvarez took home around 5 to 6 million for the Angulo fight. If that fight wasn't on PPV he would of only took home 1.3 million. It makes sense to put it on PPV. As long as fights turn a profit they'll be on PPV

Obviously I would rather have the fights on regular HBO/ShowTime. But that's not the case. Not everything is free. I'm not gonna not watch the fights. So I'll just pay for all of them and watch them. Really it's not even all that much.

No doubt it it is good for the fighters.

But, think about it. If you are a soccer or baseball fan you can watch games for free all the time, even the biggest games of the season. Occasionally, you shell out for tickets to a game. If you are a boxing fan, you're dropping over $500 just to watch events without including the cost of tickets for matches. How can the sport grow if it costs so much money to be a fan?

[Kirkland Laing]

The networks and promoters (and fighters) aren't after growing boxing, they're after making money. If there were ten boxers who could carry a PPV there'd be twenty to thirty PPVs a year.

[Violent Demise]

2014 already has more PPVs lined up than almost any previous year. Between January and July, there are 6 ppvs. That's a PPV per month.

Canelo vs. Angulo
Pacquiao vs. Bradley II
Mayweather vs. Maidana
Martinez vs. Cotto
Canelo vs. Lara
Junior vs. GGG

It's unfortunate because (1) it limits growth and (2) it requires boxing fans to pay a large amount of money to watch fights. To grow, boxing needs to appeal to as large a section of society as it can. The audience for a PPV is limited. Imagine how many people would watch Floyd if he fought on a regular network for one of his fights. Consider that HBO has 1.1 million people tune in for a Kovalev fight and HBO is a subscription based network.

At $70 per HD PPV event, if you bought every one of the above fights, that's $420 in addition to the cable subscription fees of $10-$15 per month per channel. Annually, before you include the prices of tickets for boxing events, it comes out to around $500. A basketball or soccer fan pays nothing to be fan. And they wonder why boxing is a niche sport?

Fighters make more money on PPV. After everything was added up Saul Alvarez took home around 5 to 6 million for the Angulo fight. If that fight wasn't on PPV he would of only took home 1.3 million. It makes sense to put it on PPV. As long as fights turn a profit they'll be on PPV

Obviously I would rather have the fights on regular HBO/ShowTime. But that's not the case. Not everything is free. I'm not gonna not watch the fights. So I'll just pay for all of them and watch them. Really it's not even all that much.

No doubt it it is good for the fighters.

But, think about it. If you are a soccer or baseball fan you can watch games for free all the time, even the biggest games of the season. Occasionally, you shell out for tickets to a game. If you are a boxing fan, you're dropping over $500 just to watch events without including the cost of tickets for matches. How can the sport grow if it costs so much money to be a fan?

The sport grows at it's own pace. Always has. It'll never been as high as them other sports. But it will always be around. Boxing is immortal. It will never die

[Dropanuke]

Only in America

[FinitoElDinamita]

PPVs are damaging to the sport but more importantly, the shrinkage of quality matchups due to politics is the bigger problem imo..

I had no issues ordering Don King ppvs in the 90s..

[bradlee180]

Yeah, boxing was beginning to get ruined by ppv in the mid-1980s, and it's just got worse and worse with each decade.

At least then, PPV was saved for only the biggest fights featuring the biggest Draws, and free tv still hosted plenty of World Championship fights. Then these promoters started trying to put every piece of $#!t fight on ppv... even if it featured guys that were not Draws.

[bradlee180]

It's bull$#!t, people pay for HBO, then they gotta pay extra for the Boxing event on HBO...

[Mark TKO]

PPVs are damaging to the sport but more importantly, the shrinkage of quality matchups due to politics is the bigger problem imo..

I had no issues ordering Don King ppvs in the 90s..

agreed - I paid for every fight going up to a few years ago

[walrus]

Good point. We don't pay for the Super Bowl or the World Series. If these fights were on regular TV it may cut the purse at first but if it allowed boxing to be to become mainstream again it would probably increase revenue over time. Stupid to limit boxings appeal in such a way but I guess for now the number crunchers figured it was the way to go. It just pissed me off I pay for Showtime and HBO and they make these fights that shouldn't be ppv.

[Master]

Make the Superbowl ppv and watch the millionaire players become billionaires but only a small group of people paying for it. Sport would die.