Epix the latest premium network to televise boxing in the US

As first rumored by Thomas Hauser and others, there will be a new premium network televising boxing in the US.

Epix will do so with Klitscho-Solis...and will also stream the fight on it's website.

This is the only fight they've committed to so far.

It reaches 30 million homes.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=6129689&type=story

 

The Epix website:

http://www.epixhd.com/

The website does offer a 14 day free trial period.

http://www.epixhd.com/freetrial/

What that page says:

 

Epix entered into a deal with Netflix last year that allows Netflix users to stream Epix movies.

Wonder if that will remain exclusively for movies or whether Netflix subscribers will be able to view boxing content like Klitschko-Solis, either live or on replay.

An article about the deal:

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/201...nounce-multi-year-deal-for-streaming-movies/#

It’s Official: Epix, Netflix Announce “Multi-Year” Deal for Streaming Movies

 

dammit, On Demand is a Dish Network ppv, right, and not directv?

 

Back by popular demand?

 

I was hoping to hear that boxing was back on network tv not another premium network.

 

they actually have some decent movies that come out quickly

kick ass is already on there

 

At least it's not PPv. Any boxing that more than 23k Americans get to see is a boon to the sport right now.

 

I think this may be the beginning of a couple of networks getting back into or joining in on the fight game.

If everything was to work out in the long term culminating in, yet, another boxing resurgence, these same networks would be making the claim of bringing boxing back to life in the mainstream.

That CBS deal with Pacquiao and Mosley is just the tip of the iceberg in my opinion; that is a creative marketing angle promoting boxing without having to commit a boatload of money to broadcasting entire fights. Kinda like putting your toe in the water before making the big plunge.

If the ratings are there, it may present an opportunity to bring boxing back on a piecemeal plan on CBS. You never know.

 

Is Pac-Shane gonna be on network TV?

 

Honestly, I'm not sure the sport (and by "sport" I mean promoters, managers, etc.) is ready for network television on any kind of consistent basis.

I would first like to see how the numbers are for the CBS preview shows, the reaction to the shows (by non-boxing people) and what the numbers are like for Pac-Mosley...and what kind of audience the replays do.

And it has to be kept in mind that even if those numbers are good, the reviews are good, it's still more about one fighter, one person and one story (Pacquiao's) than it is about the sport of boxing.

So even if they go well, and the fight goes well, I still think there should be some caution used when/if boxing is brought back to CBS or another network.

(And one thing to keep in mind here...if the fight is as bad as some expect, not all the post-fight reviews of this event and CBS's coverage are going to be good. You're going to see general sports columnists, talking heads and fans asking why the hell was such a big deal made of this fight and why was the price tag so damn high.)

But, for the sake of discussion, assuming things go well on CBS and the fight's not a white-wash, and that Top Rank is serious about this, then I think the next fighter in line to try would be Chavez Jr....because he does have a sizeable following in parts of the country and because he does have a "brand" name.

 

So who's got this channel?

 

I don't... and honestly never heard of it until any of this discussion began.

One thing that has been announced via press release... Lennox Lewis will "definitely" be part of the broadcast, in a role similar to that he had on Boxing After Dark.

 

With the fight being streamed on the website, I'm still a little curious about whether signing up for the 14-day trial will let you watch the fight online.

 

I do, channel 895 on Verizon FiOS

 

I just did... they don't ask for credit card info or anything. I guess the worst that happens if I don't officially subscribe is that my e-mail address makes a few more mailing lists, but that's what spam filters are for, right?

What alraedy sucks, though, is that I won't be home at the time the fight is showing live. Not sure if it's like Netflix, where you can queue it up and watch whenever you want (I selected an "add to queue" option for the fight but not sure if it's only for live viewing).

 

Nice, so you can actually put the fight in your queue?

That's perfect. I was a little worried that you'd only be able to put movies in your queue.

I do hope that if Epix picks up more boxing, that you would be able to watch it via stream like you can with other Netflix movies.

 

::

 

http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/klitschko-solis-in-times-square-78558

Klitschko-Solis in Times Square

<img src=http://fightnews.com/Boxing/sign.jpg>

 

Epix has definitely increased it's notoriety among boxing fans with this fight.

<img src=http://content.epixhd.com/styleassets/unique/premiere/bg-premiere-klitschko.jpg>

 

you know it's funny... in Steve's article this morning, Greenberg seems to give himself a lot of credit for working with HBO and Showtime in some capacity for the past 25 or so years and that he claims to have been an integral part of their boxing (entertainment) programs.

However, and almost by his own admission, Showtime lucked out by having Tyson fall in its lap. Beyond that, take away King's PPV's and most of their programming was garbage. They had some gems, no doubt, but I'm willing to wager that they had just as many shows where guys like Frans Botha and Henry Akinwande were on the A-Side of the promotion.

Just strikes me as "all of the credit, none of the blame" type of guy. Hope I'm wrong, but we'll see where this series goes.

Not a bad first fight, and they're doing a great job of maximizing viewership. That said, free never lasts very long. Eventually they have to make money, so we'll see what comes with the pricetag.

 

Yeah, from everything I've read from Greenburg it's hard to tell whether there's any real long-term interest with boxing at this moment - there's definitely no long term commitment yet - or whether they're just using Klitschko-Solis as a quick way to expand some of it's name-recognition.

And going to the business decision side of things, this line from Kim definitely makes you wonder...

http://www.maxboxing.com/news/main-lead/an-epix-commitment-to-boxing

 

I disagree. A lot.

I thought Showtime in the 90's was very solid.

Norris bros, Randall, Benn, Eubank, Calzaghe, Simon, Tito, Chavez, Tszyu, JC Vazquez, etc.

To me, they were just more interesting than HBO in the 90's. More for the hard-core fans.

Both channels pretty much sucked, though. They both improved a lot in 1998 when, as I remember, they began averaging over a telecast per month and have stayed that way ever since.

 

What was Calzaghe's first fight on Showtime? I thought it was around 2000 when he fought David Starie.

The problem was that while Trinidad was on Showtime, he had a long stretch where he wasn't fighting big events, and it wasn't until he went over to HBO that fights with Whitaker and De La Hoya came.

 

It could have been. Tyson was in the UK that weekend to fight Saverese or maybe it was Julius Francis and Calzaghe was under that.

Stairie did Calzaghe ZERO favours that night.

 

Yeah, the funny thing about it is when Tyson had the back-to-back fights in the UK against Savarese and Francis the undercard fights were Calzaghe-Starie and Judah-Witter...which were just fantastic 12-round build-ups to the 1-2 rounds fans got to see of Tyson. ::

 

That was Frank Warren, basically. Stairie showed up for the pay-day and Witter decided that nobody was going to blast him out simply because he was there to make up the PPV numbers. That Stairie fight was one of the reasons why the US Audience got it so entrenched in their heads that Calzaghe was a dull sick-note with no class.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN8UhNEnZwY&feature=related

 

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CHfmsY1uwvY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ve84R0iM_oo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

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