It looks like Primetime are the hot favourites to land Khan Vs. McCloskey however a late deal might be done with ITV just like when Khan Vs. Malignaggi was struggling for a broadcaster last year.
If a deal is done with Primetime, what chance have we got of Virgin offering the fight to us as they don't always cover Primetime PPV events, especially at such short notice. Worse still, what happens if Premier Sports somehow manage to come up with the funds jointly with Setanta Ireland to share the rights? McCloskey has a huge Irish following and a joint Premier Sports / Setanta Ireland bid is not unthinkable. Again there is little to no chance that we'd get to view the fight via the Virgin platform if it's screened by Premier Sports.
Unless ITV, BBC, ESPN or Eurosport buy the rights to show Saturdays fight, I don't think we'll be getting access to it via Virgin which is a real shame, if your a massive boxing fan like myself.
---------- Post added at 21:54 ---------- Previous post was at 21:46 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maggy J
Has PPV turned the public off boxing?I remember when boxing was so popular on national TV but has it become a case of out of sight out of mind?  |
I've read that PPV figures for boxing on SKY over the past 24 months have been pretty poor. There used to be a winning formula to PPV boxing. Fighters would be showcased for 3 or 4 years on either ITV or BBC building a fan base and notoriety. Once they got near world title status SKY would step in and sign an exclusive PPV broadcast deal usually for 4 fights, one of the fights being for a world title.
Recently however there is no live boxing on terrestrial TV. Stars of the future are being showcased on SKY's Saturday Fight Night which pulls in modest figures. Once David Haye retires, Carl Froch retires and Amir Khan burns his bridges there is nobody currently or coming through who is gaining enough exposure to be successfully marketed as a PPV fighter. The long and short of this post is ...... boxing needs to be back on BBC or ITV in a primetime slot. Amir Khan and Joe Calzaghe drew over 10 millions viewers EACH! Khan's last fight against Maidana got in the region of 150,000 PPV buys.