Why Boxing Is Shown On TV Pay Per View? This Post Will Answer You

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“Why is boxing shown on TV pay per view?”, “Do boxing matches still help network service providers to gain enormous profits?”, “Is pay per view TV boosting the popularity of boxing or not?” Those are the questions that millions of boxer fans around the world are interested in. Here we will show you why boxing is shown on TV pay per view and its related issues. Keep on your reading!

When Was Pay Per View TV Created?

Before diving into any further information, we recommend getting to know some basic knowledge about the history of pay per view TV.

Pay per view TV service was first introduced in the early 1950s. Yet, until the 1970s, PPV became a favorite means for boxing fans to enjoy watching matches at home. 

According to documents on the Internet, the fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Fraiser was the first boxing match aired on PPV TV. This fight has broken the record of TV service’s revenue at that time with $2.5 million from around 1 million buyers. Also, this match was the first internationally streamed boxing match in the world.

From the 1980s to the 2000s, people considered Showtime and HBO two of the most outstanding PPV providers in the US. Besides, these companies played a crucial part in booting boxing’s popularity.

Up to now, MMA (Mixed Material Arts) and boxing are the two primary profitable sports for PPV providers. MMA is gaining more attention and revenue from the younger generations. On the contrary, boxing is showing a reduction in popularity. 

However, the boxing matches from reputable fighters like Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Anthony Joshua are still regarded as a “Million-dollar fight.”

Why Boxing Is Shown On TV Pay Per View

After sharing the detailed information about the origin of pay per view TV, we would like to answer why boxing is shown on TV pay per view.

We rarely have a chance to watch big boxing matches on TV. Compared to other sports like soccer, football, or baseball, the number of boxing matches is much fewer, regardless of hype games. You can wait until the weekend to enjoy your favorite Premier League club, but you have to spend months for your boxing idol.

The scarcity of boxing matches is, somehow, a factor that contributes to the significant profit for TV network companies but lessening the popularity of this sport.

The situation above is quite ambiguous, right? Let’s make it clear. The reason for the “decreased popularity of boxing” lies in the client’s monthly subscriptions. 

As mentioned above, customers can watch soccer, baseball, and football almost every week, so their subscription payments are worthy. Yet, if they pay the TV fees for every month just for 4-5 boxing matches, they seem to throw their money out the window. 

Therefore, network providers would like to opt for other frequently-played sports to gain more money from subscriptions.

However, the medium popularity does not affect the love from people who are already fans of boxing. These loyal fans of boxing are willing to spend money for a ticket to a big boxing match. Yet, a world-wide boxing match is often held in a random country in the world. 

Hence, apart from money spent on the match, there will be costs for traveling, staying, eating, etc. 

It is the opportunity for TV service providers to do their tasks. They only have to buy the match’s copy-right from the organizer and stream it on their TV channel. The price for this one-time pay per view TV service is costly, but it is cheaper than going abroad to see a boxing match. For this reason, boxing matches on TV pay per view are still profitable investments for some network providers.

All the factors have given you the explanation for why boxing is shown on TV pay per view, regardless of scarcity and decreased popularity.

>>Related: How much do female boxers make and Famous white heavyweight boxers.

What Are The Reasons For The Effect Of Pay Per View TV On Boxing?

Do you remember the match Mike Tyson versus Evander Holyfield? This boxing match costs a PPV client $50 for just three rounds. The fight not only disappointed boxing fans but also showed them what a waste of money is. 

In specific, users looked forward to enjoying thrilling and vigorous moments between two great fighters. Yet, the most impressive moment they received was the bite from Tyson for Evander’s ear. Then, the match ended.

Furthermore, in 2015, the match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather was regarded as the most expensive PPV match of all time with 5 million PPV sold. However, the customers’ feedback for the match was negative.

From these two examples, you can see that the boxing fans’ care for hype boxing matches is still tremendous. Plus, they are willing to spend their money on watching favorite fighters. However, the fight does not meet the boxing enthusiasts’ expectations. 

Consequently, viewers will decide to watch fights from invalid sources for free, or they only follow the details on Internet newspapers after a few times wasting money on buying boring PPV boxing matches.

The profit from hype boxing matches will decrease. Hence, apart from stopping streaming typical boxing matches, PPV TV providers may decide to get rid of big boxing matches as well. Besides, they will replace this sport for MMA because of more promising revenue and views. For this reason, many people predicted that boxing’s popularity is going to fall off in the future.

The popularity is boosted or lessened depending on how often boxing matches come out on PPV TV. Even when boxing fans show their passionate love, boxing is still on the verge of being a forgotten sport because of the lack of the mass media’s support. In the future, there is no certainty that a boxing match will be streamed on pay per view TV.

Bottom Lines

Pay per view TV and boxing have contributed to the popularity of each one for a long time. But now, everything has changed. Younger people are showing their interest in MMA instead. TV network providers and boxing league organizers should join hands to cope with this problem.

You now can comprehend the reason why boxing is shown on TV pay per view. If you are a true boxing fan and have a large budget, don’t hesitate to pay for your boxing match.

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