Showtime to No Longer Broadcast Boxing

[Joey1986]

Showtime to no longer broadcast boxing

It’s the end of an era as streaming providers make shifts to their programming. Showtime is the latest network to axe a 37-year-old staple, Showtime Championship Boxing. Paramount Global made…

ktla.com

 

[Don CT]

HBO now Showtime. Is boxing just not a big deal anymore?

 

[salemjedi54]

HBO now Showtime. Is boxing just not a big deal anymore?

It's a big deal, but it's hard to make fights now. Look how long it took for Bud Crawford/Spence, Jr to get in the ring. It took 3+ years to make that fight. Also, there is no dominant heavyweight champion and there are too many sanctioning bodies that you don't know who holds the belts anymore.

 

[CTListener]

ESPN and DAZN ("Da Zone") seem to be the only networks with serious interest in boxing now. While ESPN still airs some fights on its cable channels (ESPN or ESPN2), many are only streamed on ESPN+. DAZN is strictly a paid streaming service and usually carries one to four boxing programs every week.

On both ESPN and DAZN, the very biggest fights are put on pay-per-view for upwards of $60. PPV has hindered boxing's growth for years, but it continues unabated.

 

[Mikey Radio]

I've also seen opinion pieces on sports websites stating that that once UFC and other MMA promotions took off, boxing by comparison could seem a bit boring. Boxing also wasn't helped by the fact that, in a few recent big-name matches that were surrounded by lots of hype for weeks beforehand, the actual "fight" that people either paid to watch, or poured into a sports bar to see, sometimes paying a cover charge to do so, consisted of 2 guys basically dancing around and taking some random jabs, but were largely unexciting. In other cases, the judge's decisions didn't reflect what nearly every viewer clearly saw for themselves which could also turn off fans.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

HBO now Showtime. Is boxing just not a big deal anymore?

Boxing is almost totally dead. As CTListener alluded to, Showtime and HBO held the knife that killed it by putting it behind sky-high paywalls.

Some of the big fights of the last decade, like Mayweather vs McGreggor in 2017, had around 5 million buyers worldwide, which isn't a lot. At the prices they charge, it was enough for both fighters to come away with a haul, but it didn't grow the sport at all.

As an example, FOX used boxing as a Friday night filler for a period of time, with the PBC promotion. In August 2020, reruns of 48 Hours on CBS had significantly more viewers and significantly more in-demo viewers than live boxing.

I believe that is the most recent time boxing aired on a broadcast network.

 

[landtuna]

When I was a kid back in the 50's boxing was on network TV every Friday (and sometimes Saturday evenings).

PPV did us all a favor when it charged big bucks and shot boxing on TV in the foot.

 

[CTListener]

When I was a kid back in the 50's boxing was on network TV every Friday (and sometimes Saturday evenings).

PPV did us all a favor when it charged big bucks and shot boxing on TV in the foot.

My grandfather boxed during his time in the Merchant Marine in World War I. I remember leafing through the latest Ring magazines (and Police Gazette, with its detailed crime stories) when I would visit as a kid. My mother often told me and my siblings about Papa's addiction to the Friday Night Fights, and how she hated boxing and always tried to sneak out of the room when it was on, often going to bed. It didn't work. Whenever there was a knockout, Papa would bellow "You missed a knockout!" and wake her up, forcing her to get back into the living room for more boxing "fun." When I became a boxing fan in my teens and started watching whatever fights remained on TV, she never watched and I never asked her to!