ITV pull out of boxing?

jonnyherb · Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:47 pm

You're right guys. I hope one thing that comes from all this TV mess is promoters putting on even better fights for less money, due to necessity, and hopefully the BBC taking up some of the cut price stuff.

I'd love to see Grandstand back, fo' shizzle

Decypher · Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:27 pm

jonnyherb wrote:

and hopefully the BBC taking up some of the cut price stuff.

Hopefully, but that would be a minor miracle I think.

Millions gets spent on football, but broadcasters just don't care about boxing in the UK.

From what I have read, broadcast rights to fairly major fights can be purchased for merely tens of thousands. I can't guarantee accuracy here, but I have read that UK rights to Pavlik/Taylor were £40,000, and that Froch/Taylor (delayed) was purchased for something under £100,000.

So it isn't like the BBC couldn't afford to show a few fights. But they say that they can't justify spending money on the sport when it doesn't have the mainstream popularity of football.

battlingsiki · Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:35 pm

At one time it was said the Internet was the way forward for live fights-with super speed broadband-perhaps it will become a reality. The TV companies seem to be popping left righ and centre. What will happen to Haye's contract with Setanta etc?

motor city hitman · Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:39 pm

Funny thing is bbc nor itv will show prime time decent boxing on bbc 1 or the main itv channel because it is not a mainstream sport??

How can they know this when they are not prepared to show boxing at a prime time. Eubank- Benn and Barry Mcguigan fights used to be on the main channel at a prime time and used to draw 20 million viewers. Now imagine Amir Khan fought Ricky Hatton and ITV secured the rights. A guaranteed 15 million viewers.

If they spent the time to build the fighters up , imagine how many people would sit and watch Tyson Fury or Darren Barker or John Murray get up to world level on ITV1.
My guess would be quite a lot.

Decypher · Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:30 am

motor city hitman wrote:

If they spent the time to build the fighters up , imagine how many people would sit and watch Tyson Fury or Darren Barker or John Murray get up to world level on ITV1.
My guess would be quite a lot.

I agree with you about the "if they spent the time to build the fighters up" part. Boxing hasn't had massive ratings in recent times. I think Khan could get up to 6 million. Calzaghe got 4 million. (Although is that really that bad in comparison to football or other sports?)

But the sport was mostly off terrestrial tv for years. And then when Warren does a deal with ITV, it only properly lasts a couple of years before ITV decides to spend its money on football instead, and Warren has to go over to Setanta. (The Khan shows stayed on ITV for a year of course.) Now ITV are talking about dumping Hennessy after only two years!

If you want the ratings, people need to know the fighters. They can't happen if they don't show any kind of commitment to the sport or promoters.

Silencers · Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:41 am

That's a shame for the UK fans, with Setanta going through their troubles and now ITV.

Login

Register

Home

Portal

Contact

Widget states

News

Contact

Search

Login

Login

Register

Register

Users Information

FF ShoutBox

Keywords for this topic