SHOWTIME EXECUTIVE SAYS "PACQUIAO IS STILL A NAME"
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 14 Jan 2017
Showtime Sports general manager Stephen Espinoza is interested to televise the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn WBO welterweight title fight due to Top Rank boss Bob Arum?s proposal to show it on free television instead of airing the bout on pay-per-view.
Horn is popular only in the Australian continent but he is a virtual unknown elsewhere especially in the United States. So it's a losing proposition to broadcast the match via PPV.
?He Pacquiao?s still a name,? Espinoza said in BoxingScene. He added that the Pacquiao-Horn fight would be great for the sport. He cited in particular those overseas pay-per-views that are a challenge to market in the US.
PPV boxing fights had not been doing well very lately after the record breaking Pacquiao-Mayweather superfight with 4.6 million buys and over $410 million in revenue. It surpassed the 2.48 million PPV's during the Mayweather fight with Oscar de la Hoya in 2007.
But Mayweather's farewell fight against Andre Berto earned only a little over 400,000. That's because Berto has no fan base and an unknown among ordinary viewers. The bout is predictable to favor Mayweather.
For PPV to be successful both fighters should be popular and good market commodities. They should be a competitive match for a more exciting tussle viewed on television. These bout should be intriguing enough to arouse enough interests from the audience.
If one of the boxers is not a potential product then it would be wise to find other options for the fight to earn money aside from PPV, Espinoza suggested. And that free television would be a wise alternative.
At present, only Saul Canelo Alvarez has proven to be an effective big time earner among the boxing stars that belong to the top ten pound-for-pound list of The Ring. His match with Miguel Cotto almost reached almost a million PPV's amounting to $58 million.
The big reason of course is that both protaginists have established their names in the minds of the boxing fans. Alvarez with the huge Mexican following and Cotto the Latin American fans. Both fighters are also well-known in the U.S.
The fight with Jessie Vargas generated 300,000 PPV buys which Arum considered a good number because they did it without HBO. Pacquiao-Bradley III did 400,000 PPV sales which Arum said was a losing venture with HBO.
HBO did not telecast Pacquiao-Vargas because they were committed to air Andre Ward vs. Sergy Kovalev two weeks later. The much-hyped Ward-Kovalev light heavyweight unification bout earned a meager 160,000 PPV buys. Almost one-half of the Pacquiao-Vargas which HBO refused to sign a contract with.
Other flops include Gennady Golovkin's PPV debut against David Lemieux which registered only about 150,000 buys. Alvarez?s latest showdown with Liam Smith was a pathetic 300,000 buys.
?There is no reason for premium cable providers to be in the pay-per-view business,? Arum told the Los Angeles Times. ?They don?t make any more. When you add in the staffing expenses, it?s not a profit center.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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