As big players move away from boxing, smaller ones can step in
In case you haven’t noticed, the teaming up of the boxing industry with the major television networks is vital to professional boxing’s existence today. The times have changed for good, and we can’t go back. Whereas once upon a time the whole world crammed into the speakeasy to listen to the Joe Louis—Max Schmeling fight on a grainy radio, today hardly anybody tunes into heavyweight title fights. Blame it on a lacklustre division, or increasing European dominance in the sport, or what have you. But the truth is that, due to terrible ratings, HBO is hardly interested in boxing anymore, and definitely not interested in the heavyweight division.
When people talk about the staggering status of boxing today, what they often neglect to mention is one of the hugest factors in the debate: the fact that the industry is at the heels of the television networks. Boxing needs them, and more and more, the opposite isn’t true. Pay channels like HBO or Showtime present boxing promoters with upcoming schedules, and slots for fights, and promoters have to work within those valuable guidelines. More, promoters have the burden of convincing the companies that the fighters they are offering them are worth valuable ‘on-air’ time, and that they won’t flub on national ratings. In short, promoters have to convince these guys that they aren’t losing money in a business arrangement.
But because the networks have lost money all too often in the past, less and less fights are picked up and shown on TV. Take the situation this weekend for instance. There’s an exciting match between Tomasz Adamek and Michael Grant at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. It won’t be broadcast by any of the majors in the States. Ditto for a battle between junior flyweights Ivan Calderon and Giovanni Segura, which happens in Puerto Rico. And the finally on 11 September former champion Erik Morales will take on Willie Limond, and to no one's surprise, the card won’t be featured on TV.
But fear not fight fans: there is a way to see these bouts. Enter Integrated Sports, a small fights-to-order pay per view broadcast company.
"There’s certainly fight fanatics out there who buy our shows and feel we put out good shows and I certainly would love it to be more," Doug Jacobs, present of Integrated Sports Media, recently said. “I’m a big believer in that there’s a difference between what people will watch and what they’ll pay for. So you can take something that, again, it may get a great audience on a ’Friday Night Fights’; say it’s a big name but it’s not compelling enough to make people buy it. You still need that catch.”
On the upcoming Adamek—Grant bout, Jacobs said: “Tomasz Adamek, OK, you can make your arguments whether Michael Grant is a worthy opponent or not but there’s certainly the Polish base that’s going to support him. So you still need that hook. You can’t just put on two guys who are maybe well-known but there’s no hook."
Jacobs knows he is marketing to a niche audience, and that, in general, he won’t reach the casual fan. But all the same, his approach is refreshing in an otherwise often dark industry.
Whether this kind of approach will be good in the long run for boxing remains to be seen. Major promoters are undoubtedly hoping they can return to the glory days of huge pay-per-view buys and easy access to HBO and Showtime. But in the meantime at least, it’s smaller companies such as integrated sports media that are finding a place. Some fighters as well, notably the Klitschkos, are relying on their own websites to broadcast fights.
If boxing isn’t dying, and there’s plenty of reasons to think it isn’t, it’s at least changing so that smaller companies like Integrated are finding their niche in the market.
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