Lou DiBella doesn’t believe HBO’s decision to broadcast less boxing thus far in 2017 has anything to do with AT&T purchasing Time Warner, HBO’s parent company, last year.
The outspoken promoter, a former HBO Sports executive, is certain that HBO’s shortage of live boxing broadcasts this year is the consequence of a decline in boxing ratings in recent years for the premium-cable network. During a recently released podcast with Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Mannix, DiBella dismissed the theory among boxing industry insiders who’ve speculated that AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner has prohibited HBO Sports from airing as much boxing as it did even last year.
By the end of April, HBO will have televised three live boxing events within the first four months of 2017. That doesn’t include an HBO Latino doubleheader scheduled for April 15.
Through April of last year, HBO had televised five live events during the first four months of 2016.
“Honestly,” DiBella told Mannix, “boxing stopped being must-see programming in the minds of HBO top executives, I think, a long time ago.”
Their minds have changed, according to DiBella, basically because the network’s recent ratings for boxing don’t justify spending nearly as much money on the sport as HBO once did. DiBella, who emphasized that HBO made $1.5 billion in revenue for Time Warner year, contends that the difference between committing “$20 million for boxing or $30 million for boxing is negligible difference for a budget for an entire programming area at HBO. It’s negligible.
“The fact that they’re not doing it, I think it’s just a cost analysis of, ‘Am I getting bang for my buck where I could use it elsewhere?’ Not some bullsh*t of AT&T made a deal and they’re buying Time Warner.”
Neither of HBO’s live boxing broadcasts in 2017 have drawn peak audiences in excess of 700,000 viewers.
The network’s most recent live telecast, headlined by David Lemieux’s spectacular one-punch, third-round knockout of Curtis Stevens on March 11, attracted a peak viewership of 672,000 and averaged 606,000 viewers. HBO’s first live broadcast of this year, which featured Miguel Berchelt’s 11th-round knockout of Francisco Vargas on January 28, peaked at 549,000 viewers and averaged 497,000.
Ratings for the “Boxing After Dark” doubleheader January 28 were unusually low for HBO in part because Showtime televised the Leo Santa Cruz-Carl Frampton rematch simultaneously. The Santa Cruz-Frampton rematch, which Santa Cruz won by majority decision, drew enough viewers (peak: 643,000; average: 587,000) to score Showtime a rare ratings win against HBO when the premium-cable competitors have aired boxing at the same time.
Showtime has roughly 24 million subscribers in the United States, about 8 million less than HBO.
By the end April, Showtime will have televised five live boxing events within the first four months of 2017. That doesn’t include “ShoBox” broadcasts or the Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia doubleheader, which aired March 4 as a special edition of “Showtime Championship Boxing” on CBS, Showtime’s parent company.
HBO and Showtime also are battling for the right to air the highly anticipated Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight title fight April 29 from sold-out Wembley Stadium in London.
Mannix asked DiBella why Showtime seems more committed to televising live boxing this year than HBO.
“Anything that they can do,” DiBella explained, “in comparison to HBO, which was always the 800-pound gorilla, that moves them in appearances closer or exceeding the expectations of the 800-pound gorilla, is smart business. People do smart business. Smart people, at least, do smart business. Dumb people do dumb business. That’s basically it.”
DiBella has promoted two Showtime cards thus far this year, as well as the Thurman-Garcia show. He also promotes Felix Diaz (19-1, 9 KOs), who’ll challenge WBC/WBO super lightweight champion Terence Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) in an HBO “World Championship Boxing” main event May 20 at Madison Square Garden.
The card headlined by Crawford-Diaz will be officially announced at a press conference Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
“I’m looking forward to working with them,” DiBella said of HBO. “I mean, I like Peter [Nelson, executive vice president for HBO Sports]. And you know what? I have a fighter fighting on the network. I wanna see it do a good rating. I wanna see good fights do a good rating. It happens to be a good fight. They haven’t had one in a while.
“It’s a good fight. I’m gonna help promote it. I want people to watch it. It’s on HBO on May 20th. I want people to watch that. I want people to watch [Andre] Berto and [Shawn] Porter April 22nd on Showtime. I want people to watch our better product out there, because I think it helps the industry. But as a whole, I mean, we have a pretty sort of irrational business model all over our industry.”
- See more at: http://www.boxingscene.com/dibella-...less-boxing-2017--115243#sthash.9gnX7E4d.dpuf
The outspoken promoter, a former HBO Sports executive, is certain that HBO’s shortage of live boxing broadcasts this year is the consequence of a decline in boxing ratings in recent years for the premium-cable network. During a recently released podcast with Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Mannix, DiBella dismissed the theory among boxing industry insiders who’ve speculated that AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner has prohibited HBO Sports from airing as much boxing as it did even last year.
By the end of April, HBO will have televised three live boxing events within the first four months of 2017. That doesn’t include an HBO Latino doubleheader scheduled for April 15.
Through April of last year, HBO had televised five live events during the first four months of 2016.
“Honestly,” DiBella told Mannix, “boxing stopped being must-see programming in the minds of HBO top executives, I think, a long time ago.”
Their minds have changed, according to DiBella, basically because the network’s recent ratings for boxing don’t justify spending nearly as much money on the sport as HBO once did. DiBella, who emphasized that HBO made $1.5 billion in revenue for Time Warner year, contends that the difference between committing “$20 million for boxing or $30 million for boxing is negligible difference for a budget for an entire programming area at HBO. It’s negligible.
“The fact that they’re not doing it, I think it’s just a cost analysis of, ‘Am I getting bang for my buck where I could use it elsewhere?’ Not some bullsh*t of AT&T made a deal and they’re buying Time Warner.”
Neither of HBO’s live boxing broadcasts in 2017 have drawn peak audiences in excess of 700,000 viewers.
The network’s most recent live telecast, headlined by David Lemieux’s spectacular one-punch, third-round knockout of Curtis Stevens on March 11, attracted a peak viewership of 672,000 and averaged 606,000 viewers. HBO’s first live broadcast of this year, which featured Miguel Berchelt’s 11th-round knockout of Francisco Vargas on January 28, peaked at 549,000 viewers and averaged 497,000.
Ratings for the “Boxing After Dark” doubleheader January 28 were unusually low for HBO in part because Showtime televised the Leo Santa Cruz-Carl Frampton rematch simultaneously. The Santa Cruz-Frampton rematch, which Santa Cruz won by majority decision, drew enough viewers (peak: 643,000; average: 587,000) to score Showtime a rare ratings win against HBO when the premium-cable competitors have aired boxing at the same time.
Showtime has roughly 24 million subscribers in the United States, about 8 million less than HBO.
By the end April, Showtime will have televised five live boxing events within the first four months of 2017. That doesn’t include “ShoBox” broadcasts or the Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia doubleheader, which aired March 4 as a special edition of “Showtime Championship Boxing” on CBS, Showtime’s parent company.
HBO and Showtime also are battling for the right to air the highly anticipated Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight title fight April 29 from sold-out Wembley Stadium in London.
Mannix asked DiBella why Showtime seems more committed to televising live boxing this year than HBO.
“Anything that they can do,” DiBella explained, “in comparison to HBO, which was always the 800-pound gorilla, that moves them in appearances closer or exceeding the expectations of the 800-pound gorilla, is smart business. People do smart business. Smart people, at least, do smart business. Dumb people do dumb business. That’s basically it.”
DiBella has promoted two Showtime cards thus far this year, as well as the Thurman-Garcia show. He also promotes Felix Diaz (19-1, 9 KOs), who’ll challenge WBC/WBO super lightweight champion Terence Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) in an HBO “World Championship Boxing” main event May 20 at Madison Square Garden.
The card headlined by Crawford-Diaz will be officially announced at a press conference Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
“I’m looking forward to working with them,” DiBella said of HBO. “I mean, I like Peter [Nelson, executive vice president for HBO Sports]. And you know what? I have a fighter fighting on the network. I wanna see it do a good rating. I wanna see good fights do a good rating. It happens to be a good fight. They haven’t had one in a while.
“It’s a good fight. I’m gonna help promote it. I want people to watch it. It’s on HBO on May 20th. I want people to watch that. I want people to watch [Andre] Berto and [Shawn] Porter April 22nd on Showtime. I want people to watch our better product out there, because I think it helps the industry. But as a whole, I mean, we have a pretty sort of irrational business model all over our industry.”
- See more at: http://www.boxingscene.com/dibella-...less-boxing-2017--115243#sthash.9gnX7E4d.dpuf
