Prime Video has signed a multi-year agreement to broadcast Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) events. The move by Al Haymon’s PBC has been rumored for quite some time, but now it’s a done deal and official.
The word is that PBC’s events on Amazon Prime will be PPV, not regular broadcasts. That puts more pressure on Haymon to put on events that fans are willing to pay instead of seeing a bunch of horrible mismatches that NO one wants to see and have no sporting value whatsoever.
If you’re a fan who doesn’t mind paying to see ALL of PBC’s events on Amazon Prime, you’ll be in favor of their move, but who wants to pay to see everything? PBC needs to make these events part of the regular Prime Video subscription, not asking fans to have to subsidize the move.
While it sounds good, it’s still unknown if this deal covers mainly PPV events for Premier Boxing Champion fighters and not regular non-PPV broadcasts. Moreover, unless the move means a change in the way PBC matches their fighters, it’ll be the same old thing. No one wants to see Gervonta Davis destroying Ryan Garcia again or beating up Isaac Cruz with one hand.
Earlier today, PBC announced it on their social media, stating that there will be 12 to 14 events and regular championship boxing. Along with that, the weigh-ins and the mini-series will be available to the 160 million+ subscribers to Amazon Prime.
The deal starts in March 2024, which means there will be more inactivity for the already inactive PBC fighters. Some guys who have already been inactive for ages won’t be happy about it, especially with only two cards a year on Amazon Prime.
For the PBC fighters, in theory, they’ll get a lot of visibility due to Amazon Prime’s 160+ million subscribers, as long as the events are advertised well. If PBC events are getting visibility with those subscribers, it’s a good thing.
“I don’t know the financials. I don’t think it’s a massive rights fee deal, which is difficult but, at the same time, good,” said Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing to Fight Hub TV, reacting to today’s announcement of PBC signing a multi-fight deal with Amazon Prime.
“I’m glad they [PBC] got another broadcast deal. I’m glad we got another player [Amazon Prime Video] in the broadcast world of boxing because we need it, they needed it. Now, they’ve [PBC] got a lot of good fighters that need to be serviced, and hopefully, it’s a deal that can service their roster.
“PBC has always wanted to keep everything in-house, and now they don’t have the deal to do that, but maybe the stubbornness will remain. I think everybody should work together. We’ve seen, really, with the Saudi card and the promoters coming together, how great you can build a card and how big of a night you can be. We’ll see what happens.
“Obviously, they’ll [PBC] want to make sure they have their broadcaster [Amazon Prime], and we’ll want to do the same. It’s difficult to make those fights, but hopefully, we can make some big fights moving forward,” said Hearn.
Whether this is good or bad for fans still remains to be seen. There had been a lot of questions about where PBC would move after Showtime opted to stop broadcasting boxing events after this year.
On the surface, PBC moving to Amazon Prime sounds too good to be true. If it’s just pay-per-view events that are shown, then that’s not good for fans unless they’re willing to shell out money every time they want to watch PBC’s regular fighters compete.
That said, sticking one good fight in the main event mediocre undercards won’t work for fans who subscribe to Amazon Prime, as they want to see quality fights.
This good be a good deal for fans if Amazon Prime Video insists that PBC stage quality events that the fans want to see rather than the type of mismatches that we’ve been seeing lately.
For example, PBC’s recent David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade PPV fight was a non-competitive fight from the word go. The co-feature between Jermall Charlo and Jose Benavidez Jr. was just as bad. It was obvious the moment those fights were signed that they wouldn’t be sporting.
Benavidez should have been forced to fight a live dog like David Morrell instead of the 35-year-old Andrade. If Amazon Prime insists on PBC putting on competitive events instead of the standard mismatches, it would be a good deal for fans to subscribe.
Still, it’s hard to imagine PBC suddenly changing the way they’ve matched fighters in the past to give fans the fights they want to see regardless of the move.
If fans are already subscribed to Amazon Prime for delivery and video purposes, they’ll be glad about this move by PBC.
Non-subscribers might not be excited about paying a ton of money, $14.99 per month or $139 yearly to be a member. If people still have to pay to watch the PBC events on PPV on top of the Amazon Prime subscription cost, that’s not a good deal.
It’s less expensive to subscribe to Amazon Prime than it is for DAZN, which is $224 if one goes for the yearly option. Otherwise, it’s $19.99 monthly for Super Saver or $24.99 for the Flexible pass.
