smcb80 wrote:i wasn't aware of boxing on telly then, but were hagler, hearns & leonard fights all on free british tv back then?
sky do a great job for boxing. no other channel would show any of these british title fights. rhodes - alvarez wouldn't have got a look in on another other channel. whereas people in work who don't follow boxing are talking about it today.
am i correct in thinking that there are maybe 2 ppvs every weekend in america? whereas only one a month maybe ( at a stretch) here. barker - martinez, macklin - sturm, froch - johnson fights are all on ordinary sky, well worth it if you ask me. we don't have to pay $55+ for every manny fight, and no doubt mayweather - ortiz will be the same.
and if you want it for less - ring & threaten to leave. they'll give a discount, maybe only a tenner a month but it all adds up.
Sky have broadcast 1 (one) PPV in 2011 - Groves v DeGale. The perception seems to be there's one a month, but it's actually not that bad. This will increase to 2 (two) when Haye v Klitschko is broadcast.
As for Hagler, hearns, etc being on free TV in the 80s...of course they bloody were, there was no such thing as satellite or PPV (certainly not for the mass market). Boxing was free on TV because that was its only outlet.
Yes there may have been 18m watching boxing in the 80s, but that does not mean that 18m would watch boxing now. Corrie and Eastenders used to regularly draw audiences of 18m+ for every show, 2-3 times a week. Nowadays those exact same shows generate figures of less than 10m. Multi-channel TV has created choice which the public have responded to. There are also more things that people choose to do - Internet, consoles and gaming, DVD's and cinema, etc.