FOX Exec Expects Four To Five Pay-Per-Views A Year

[Ruthless-RKO]

LOS ANGELES – The card headlined by the Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz rematch will mark FOX’s fourth pay-per-view boxing broadcast within an eight-month span this year.

Bill Wanger, FOX Sports’ executive vice president of programming, live operations and research, expects that the broadcast network will maintain that pay-per-view pace or close to it over the final three years of its deal with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. Wanger discussed FOX’s pay-per-view strategy and other topics during an interview with a small group of reporters prior to the press conference Saturday at Staples Center to officially announce the Wilder-Ortiz rematch.

Wanger wants to bring what would be considered pay-per-view-worthy fights to free television, yet he understands that purse requirements mostly make that approach impractical in most instances. Purses for Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter were listed as $2 million apiece on their California State Athletic Commission contracts, but both boxers are believed to have earned much more money from their welterweight title unification fight Saturday night through bonuses and percentages of the pay-per-view revenue.

“Within our deal, we have four to five pay-per-views a year,” said Wanger, whose network announced a four-year deal with PBC in September 2018. “We understand that every fight can’t be a pay-per-view-level fight. That’s why we have 12 fights [per year] on FS1. That’s why we have 10 fights [per year] on FOX broadcasting, which are free. And that’s more than there’s ever been in boxing in a long, long time.

“So, our goal with this whole PBC deal is to bring great fights back to free, over-the-air television and basic cable television, in a maximum number of homes. And yes, there’s gonna be four to five pay-per-views a year, when there are special fights, like [Spence-Porter] and [Wilder-Ortiz].”

Multiple sources have informed Boxing Scene.com that Spence-Porter probably will have produced approximately 275,000 buys, based on initial projections from cable and satellite operators. Spence’s first FOX Sports Pay-Per-View appearance – a unanimous-decision defeat of Mikey Garcia on March 16 – reportedly generated about 330,000 buys.

FOX Sports doesn’t officially reveal pay-per-view numbers from fights it distributes. Nevertheless, Wanger anticipates a strong showing from Wilder and Ortiz, whom Wilder knocked out in the 10th round of a March 2018 bout that was televised live on Showtime.

“I think it’ll completely resonate [on pay-per-view],” Wanger said of their November 23 bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. “It’ll be a great rematch. I think we’ll have all of our promotional power in the fall leading up to the fight, in football and postseason baseball and college football. So, we’ll drum up some good business for this fight.”

Wanger wouldn’t comment on whether FOX has secured the co-distribution rights, along with ESPN, to the Wilder-Fury rematch, tentatively scheduled for February 22. Showtime also is expected to bid to distribute Wilder-Fury II, which is dependent upon Wilder overcoming Ortiz in their second bout.

Wilder-Ortiz will be the sixth major boxing pay-per-view show in the United States in 2019. ESPN, which distributed the Terence Crawford-Amir Khan card, and Showtime, which distributed the Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner show, accounted for two of boxing’s first three pay-per-view events this year.

There were just two major pay-per-view boxing broadcasts in the U.S. in 2018 – the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin rematch (HBO) and the Wilder-Fury fight (Showtime). There were five such shows in 2017 (four distributed by HBO, one by Showtime) and six in 2016 (five by HBO, one by Bob Arum’s Top Rank).

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[Best Coast]

Looks like Fox hopes to fill the gap left by HBO's departure from the fight game.

[jujigatame]

I wouldn't say they're filling the HBO gap when it sounds like every remotely big fight will be on PPV.

I thought ESPN+ and DAZN were gonna end the PPV era but PBC is keeping it alive.

[Enlightened-One]

I wouldn't say they're filling the HBO gap when it sounds like every remotely big fight will be on PPV.

I thought ESPN+ and DAZN were gonna end the PPV era but PBC is keeping it alive.

ESPN actually televises PPV's.

And some of Eddie Hearn's DAZN cards are often PPV events in the UK.

Golden Boy also promotes PPV events.

All the various promoters that claimed the PPV model was allegedly “dead” currently promotes events that are televised as PPV’S.

[margaret thatcher]

Ya leave PBC alone!!

[Enlightened-One]

Ya leave PBC alone!!

I’m not trying to defend the PBC, but merely illustrate the fact that Top Rank, Golden Boy and Matchroom have never ceased promoting PPV events and they will all continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

[gilgamesh]

I wouldn't say they're filling the HBO gap when it sounds like every remotely big fight will be on PPV.

I thought ESPN+ and DAZN were gonna end the PPV era but PBC is keeping it alive.

ESPN actually televises PPV's.

And some of Eddie Hearn's DAZN cards are often PPV events in the UK.

Golden Boy also promotes PPV events.

All the various promoters that claimed the PPV model was allegedly “dead” currently promotes events that are televised as PPV’S.

A streaming service is PPV just the same as PBC's PPV's are. Cheaper, but a PPV all the same.

[margaret thatcher]

Pretty much anything you watch, in some costs you money to watch it tbh. And often what is supposedly 'free' for some people isn't for others

[Onetimeonly]

Ya leave PBC alone!!

[Onetimeonly]

Spence/Porter was money well spent.

[jujigatame]

ESPN actually televises PPV's.

And some of Eddie Hearn's DAZN cards are often PPV events in the UK.

Golden Boy also promotes PPV events.

All the various promoters that claimed the PPV model was allegedly “dead” currently promotes events that are televised as PPV’S.

A streaming service is PPV just the same as PBC's PPV's are. Cheaper, but a PPV all the same.

Cheaper by an utterly massive margin. A single month of ESPN+ is only $5 and gives you at least a few boxing cards, not to mention other sports like UFC and soccer. DAZN is more expensive but you still get a Canelo or GGG fight for $20 and still get another 4 weeks of cards on top.

[jujigatame]

Also it's a bit disingenuous to say "everyone does PPV, not just PBC". 5 out of the 6 major boxing PPVs in 2019 were PBC.

[Perseus]

The fans are the only group that can bring an end to the ppv era.
As long as fans continue to buy the ppv events there is no good reason to discontinue them.