Nick Hagan: PPV in boxing is not a new phenomenon. It was first introduced in 1975 to the US market by Don King for the fight between Ali V Frazier “Thriller in Manila”. Following this, during the 1980’s and 1990’s we saw the superstar’s of Boxing, such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Oscar De La Hoya fight on PPV, for Championship Fights.
During the last decade, we have seen the new stars of Boxing such as Mayweather, Pacquiao, Cotto and Alvarez, become PPV boxers in the USA. However the problem with the new generation of Boxing stars is that they and their promoters expect to be fighting on PPV every time they lace a pair of gloves. This wouldn’t be so bad if the opposition were not so subpar and the price for the PPV was more realistic. A prime example of this is the upcoming fight between Manny Pacquiao v Chris Algieri. The majority of casual boxing fans have never even heard of Algieri. The fight is priced at $69.99 per view in the US, which is just an obscene amount of money to line the pockets opromoters, Television Companies and Boxers alike.
PPV was first introduced to the UK market by Sky TV, for the rematch between Mike Tyson v Frank Bruno. This was priced at £15 or $24. I was one of the thousands of people who purchased this fight, but it’s worth noting here that this was an anticipated mega fight between two superstars of Boxing at the time.
During the last twenty years, we have seen Sky TV in the UK, charge a PPV fee exclusively to World Class fights, which have warranted this status. I.e. Lewis V Tyson, Mayweather V Hatton, Pacquiao V Hatton etc., but notice how all these boxers are household names and have/ were achieving so much in the ring. Earlier this year we saw Froch v Groves II, on Sky PPV, which was an epic and at £22.95 or $36.40 was quite a bargain. Some American fans may disagree, but it needs to be remembered that the PPV was priced realistically and Groves had already become a household name in the UK, from his previous fights against the likes of James De Gale.
In 2011 The UK was introduced to its first dedicated Full Time Boxing Channel in ‘Boxnation’. I have personally been subscribing to ‘Boxnation’ since the early part of 2013 and just think it’s absolutely fantastic value for money. For Subscription of just £12 or $19 per month, week in and week out they air many of the main events shown around the globe. The good thing about ‘Boxnation’ is that they are not contracted solely to one promoter and because of this subscribers have been able to enjoy events from TV companies such as HBO, Showtime and from promotions held by ‘Top Rank’, ‘Goldenboy Promotions’, ‘K2’ and ‘Sauerland Promotions’, to name a few. This year alone they have aired the following events live; Mayweather v Maidana 1 & 2, Pacquiao v Bradley, Alvarez v Lara, Alvarez v Angulo, Cotto v Martinez & Hopkins v Kovalev, along with many other great fights from around the globe. Later in November they are airing Live; Pacquiao v Algieri, Fury v Chisora and in December they have scheduled fights for Bradley v Chaves, Stevenson v Sukhotsky & Crawford v Beltran, all at no extra cost.
The above easily justifies, the disparity between the costs of viewing Boxing in the US, compared to the UK. The US market is seriously overpriced, where the UK market with the introduction of Boxnation and fare strategies by Sky TV, on when to make an event PPV is clear to see. It’s relatively easy Maths to work out that for 3 x $69.99 = $209.97 PPV events in the US. For this price you will pretty much get a whole years viewing on Boxnation. In 2014 alone viewers have enjoyed 6 events that were PPV in the US, at no extra cost. Unfortunately, I personally can’t see how the cost of viewing Boxing in the US is going to change anytime soon. The number of promoters in the US is decreasing by the year, due to the monopolisation of a very few. This monopolisation means that promoters can pretty much do what they want, in terms of pricing strategies and what TV channels they air their events on, thus forcing fans to pay the premiums.
As a true Boxing fan, I just hope that ‘Boxnation’ lives on and Sky TV in the UK doesn’t start charging for meaningless Fights anytime soon.
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