Thomas Hauser: How HBO Lost Manny Pacquiao

http://www.maxboxing.com/news/main-lead/how-hbo-lost-manny-pacquiao

 

CBS will definitely be involved in promoting the event

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The production costs of the 24/7-like show will be paid for by Top Rank, but...

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Why doesn't just CBS make the move to return big-time boxing to network cable

 

I look forward to fight promos on CBS. That is good exposure for the sport.

 

Interesting note on Bradley-Alexander and HBO's 2011 budget...

 

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I'm wondering what the promos will look like.

Will the adds use the punch Mosley landed on Mayweather like the adds used the punch Bruno landed on Tyson (in their first fight) to hype their rematch?

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I think it's because boxing is pretty much Pacquiao and Mayweather...and then everyone else.

Cotto's one of the only fighters on the second tier below them...perhaps something can happen with him and CBS.

I wouldn't mind seeing CBS showing a replay of the Mayorga fight at some point.

 

Wow. Holy shit. Wow.

I don't care if Bradley/Alexander is an amazing fight and HBO does great financially because of it, in fact I hope it works out, but

whoever is responsible for committing that kind of money for that fight should be out of a job. Right now. No questions asked.

 

“Ross’s arrogance led to this,” says a promoter who has done extensive business with HBO. “He fiddled while HBO Sports burned. HBO has the largest checkbook in the business, so he’s used to buying whatever he wants. If Ross had put together a package that gave Manny a platform on TBS or TNT, the fight could have stayed with HBO. But Ross didn’t see the need for that and he isn’t that creative. He’s creative in a production sense but not as a businessman. Ross doesn’t understand boxing as a business or a sport, so he can’t help find ways to make it better. He understands what makes a compelling documentary but not a compelling fight. He has lots of Emmys but Emmys are about art, not business.”

 

Also, HBO's preference towards DLH and Haymond (Or anybody else for that matter) sacrificed their matches' quality along with the ridiculous multi-fight contracts.

 

That makes too much sense.

 

Great read

 

More money on PPV.

 

Yeah, one thing on here that's not yet known is how all this investment of time and money from CBS will translate into pay per view buys.

The fight likely wouldn't have done the same numbers on Showtime as it would have done on HBO (without the help of CBS)...so how much does all the CBS time and ads make up for that, and can it even push it over what it could have done on HBO (and what exactly could it have done on HBO, given Mosley's performances against Mayweather and Mora).

Needless to say, I'm interested in what the numbers for the pay per view are...as well as the individual show ratings for the 24/7-like shows, 60 minutes and all that.

 

I don't know how to swing on this. I have never occupied an executive position in my life. How should HBO behave? Do they take the so-called Marquee fighters, make fights with them, and charge us all $50 a pop?

Or do they take any old fighter, and make lots of smaller, interesting fights with less of a marquee value and more of a hardcore following?

 

At least HBO repeats a PPV fight the following Saturday with another interesting live fight. Showtime doesn't. If you are lucky you can catch it, months later, on another cable channel. If CBS is not going to show live FREE boxing, then I don't give a shit about this.

 

HBO should stop giving preference to certain promoters and give us good main events along with good undercards. Just like it used to be.

 

HBO just did that and Top Rank ran to Showtime.

 

As far as I know, the HBO boxing budget doesn't include PPV's.

 

I'll need examples of this, because of the last four SHO PPVs - Mayorga-Vargas, Castillo-Corrales II, McBride-Tyson, Williams-Tyson - I don't recall any NOT airing a week later.

Showtime even went out of its way to secure a deal with ESPN Classic just to ensure that Mayorga-Vargas aired the following week, since it couldn't fit within its own locked in schedule (including a live boxing tripleheader).

 

Yeah, not only that, but I don't know why anyone would criticize Showtime for having their Championship Boxing broadcasts relpayed on a non-showtime channel like Universal.

 

the irony in even discussing replays for this particular subject is that Arum has always been an outspoken critic against the very practice. In fact, he ridicules HBO for it regularly, to where he uses his own series on FSE (and Azteca before that) to counterprogam their PPV replays, including the ones involving his own fighters.

 

As has been mentioned in another article, all I can see is Arum pimping his top rank stable product plus Manny vs. a retread to an entirely new bunch of suckers. I like that new/more people may be exposed to boxing, but I'm guessing that it will mean that we won't get to see some of those matchups between TR fighters and those from other stables. Is that just cynicism?

 

Thats how I see it. I'll grant you I am not the most investigative when it comes to Manny Pac but a casual fan could tell you that the guys he is fighting have a lot of miles on the clock- big names, but somewhat weary too. Whats keeping Pac in good stead is how he deals with them.

I never liked Arum and regarded him with the same suspicion I do the rest of these promoters.

 

This is number of live viewers it bought:

http://theboxingtruth.com/article.php?id=1951

 

I'm still in the small minority of people who believe HBO is doing the right thing. Sure, $4 million is an outrageous price tag for this fight. But I'd rather someone overspend, than for a fight to not be made at all.

For the moment, Bradley and Khan seem genuinely interested in facing each other and HBO is very interested in making that fight happen by summertime. If that happens, then HBO for the first time in a while did its job as a programmer in regards to delivering to the people the best fights that can be made.

Showtime is paying Bute twice as much as the paydays being collected by the Super Six participants, and against far inferior opposition (to where I'm surprised Froch, Ward and Abraham aren't fuming over the deal). Their investment isn't even guaranteed to pay off until next spring at the earliest, if at all.