Comments Thread For: Santa Cruz-Mares A Huge Ratings Hit For PBC on ESPN

[bigdunny1]

The numbers are not that great. A whole lot of spin going on to say they are. But it looks good compared to how TERRIBLE the ratings where when ESPN debuted with the Thurman fight. The Garcia fight slightly improved on that and this fight did slightly better as well. If you are PBC you are looking for the arrow to point up but they are still not where they need to be especially considering the fact they are still losing multi-millions each show because these cards are very expensive and they foot the entire bill including paying the networks and I still saw little to no real TV advertisement. That's concerning that they have had this many shows and still advertisers don't want much to do with PBC.

I will say the overall product is MUCH better on ESPN then any of the other networks and that's because ESPN like the other networks ACTUALLY has experience airing boxing and has a real announcing crew with credibility. And it shows.

[Deevel916]

ESPN isnt free TV. FNF on ESPN has been averaging between 350,000-400,000 viewers the past few years. Arreola-Stiverne II brought in 900k views, and that was their largest boxing viewership since 2006.

So this fight was the biggest fight on ESPN in at least a decade. When you consider that this fight also probably did a very nice gate, things are looking very good all around.

It's free with any cable subscription. I've had Direct TV, Time Warner, and now Verizon Fios. Never paid extra for ESPN.

[Pigeons]

What you morons don't understand is that the 1.2M is the average over the ENTIRE 2-hour telecast.

What is the average for EACH fight? That's how HBO releases their ratings. Also what was the peak for EACH fight?

[Ahmed_Ismail]

How is this huge ratings for "free tv"? HBO you have to pay for and gets the same amount of viewers.

No way HBO would've gotten these views if Santa Cruz was fighting Mares on PPV, no way! It wouldn't have sold more than 200k no matter what.

[k1llu]

It's free with any cable subscription. I've had Direct TV, Time Warner, and now Verizon Fios. Never paid extra for ESPN.

key word subscription you still pay for it. abc.nbc is free not espn

[IMDAZED]

key word subscription you still pay for it. abc.nbc is free not espn

So what's your point? That you have to pay monthly for ESPN along with 1300 other channels? Well yeah...duh

[North Star]

No way HBO would've gotten these views if Santa Cruz was fighting Mares on PPV, no way! It wouldn't have sold more than 200k no matter what.

Why would HBO put this type of match on PPV? It has Boxing After Dark written all over it.

[bigdunny1]

ESPN isnt free TV. FNF on ESPN has been averaging between 350,000-400,000 viewers the past few years. Arreola-Stiverne II brought in 900k views, and that was their largest boxing viewership since 2006.

So this fight was the biggest fight on ESPN in at least a decade. When you consider that this fight also probably did a very nice gate, things are looking very good all around.

Terrible comparison because those FNF cards had a entire budget of like 50K and featured mainly unknown and prospects. Santa Cruz and Mares both world champs and each earned career-high purses of $1.25 million. Arreola and Stiverne combined I don't think made that much for their fight. And that's not even counting the undercard for last weekend. They paying 10-20X the cost of production to get slightly better ratings. FNF also got little to no money to promote those fights where as PBC is paying millions to make sure you see TV ads, website ads, and radio ads. You don't spend that type of money just to beat FNF tv ratings.

[youbeight]

So a ESPN broadcast between two young Mexican fighters for a world title in a 13k ticket sold arena in their backyard does the highest boxing rating telecast on the network ever with 1.27m viewers and STILL people are hating ? Come on now it's no longer criticism at this point.

[IMDAZED]

Why would HBO put this type of match on PPV? It has Boxing After Dark written all over it.

So does Golovkin-Lemieux