BoxRec

From a feature I did two years ago:

The biggest audience for BBC coverage of boxing since 2001 is Audley Harrison’s debut against Mike Middleton which got 5 million viewers.

Harrison’s second fight, a points win against Derek McCafferty, got 3.2 million.

His fourth and fifth fights (though they were given less popular slots) came in at 1.2 million. His sixth fight, against Dominic Negus, which was shown on a Wednesday night at 10.30pm rated at 2.3 million. Harrison boxed on the network several times after this but never reached this level again.

Harrison did quite well in comparison to other boxers though. Since 2001, the best BBC ratings for the following boxers are:

Danny Williams v Keith Long, 17th September 2002 (live, Tuesday, 10.30pm slot) 2.1 million

Joe Calzaghe v Mikkel Kessler, 10th November 2007 (delayed, Saturday 1.10pm slot) 1.6 million

Clinton Woods v Glen Johnson, 7th November 2003 (live, Friday, 11.30pm slot) 1.3 million

David Walker v Roman Karmazin, 4th October 2003 (live, Saturday, 11.25pm slot) 1.3 million

Robin Reid v Sven Ottke, 13th December 2003 (delayed, Saturday, 2.30pm slot) 1.1 million

Carl Froch v Charles Adamu, 12th March 2004 (live, Friday, 11.30pm slot) 1.1 million

Ricky Hatton v Floyd Mayweather, 16th December 2007 (delayed, 1pm slot) 0.8 million

For some reason, Woods v Hoye wasn't listed in my stats but I'd be astonished if it was as high as 5 mill.

Would be interested to know the figure if you can find out.

sg1985 wrote:How do they work figures like that out? I watched the Woods-Johnson fight in a packed pub where everyone was watching it.

Drop them a line and ask (if you pay your licence fee)

Cheers Ian.

Looking at them figures though and it's quite surprising why BBC didnt stick around.

Over 1m for Walker Karmazin at 11:25pm

Look at Williams/Long.

should be a great night with as mentioned the mitchell v katsidis fight on sky and this fight on itv is amazing, absolutley great for boxing, EVERYONE WATCH IT!

whilst im delighted boxing will be back on terrestrial tv , i think some may be getting carried away as far as figures are going , what i mean by this is , in my opinion ,for a tv company like itv to think boxing is a viable option it has to be competing with the likes of their primetime programmes like coronation street , as it must cost a lot more to show a boxing show than a single episode of their popular soap , whilst i would love to see more boxing on tv , i can understand why it doesnt seem attractive to the tv executives.

did i also read someone post on here somewhere that itv were offered the khan fight for next to nothing , if so this is surely a strategic view from the americans to raise his profile more , as im sure they will have noted some the criticism hes had.

sg1985 wrote:How do they work figures like that out? I watched the Woods-Johnson fight in a packed pub where everyone was watching it.

This is how I thought they did it:

In the UK audience figures are calculated by BARB. BARB randomly selects around 5000 homes around the UK to which it gives a special electronic box which records who watches what and when in the house.

Although there are only around 5000 homes, they are selected in a way (although random) that they statistically represents the demographic make-up of the country. They homes involved are also constantly changed so that the survey sample still represents the UK population accurately.

Despite the apparently small survey size (although still about 5x bigger than the average opinion poll), the figures are mathematically accurate to around plus or minus 2%.

Certainly, since they are used to calculate advertising rates, you can expect commercial networks to scream like stuffed pigs if they thought the figures underestimated their audience.

At least that's what happened when TalkSport thought that the radio equivalent RAJAR, which uses a traditional paper based questionnaire, under-stated their figures

Sky also has the ability to calculate its own figures using the data collected when its boxes "phone home" every night (that's why they insist it is connected to your phone line). Although, Sky has collected these figures in the past, they have never been released. That would suggest to me that Sky's figures are broadly in agreement with BARBs.
Source(s):
http://www.barb.co.uk

Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:From a feature I did two years ago:

The biggest audience for BBC coverage of boxing since 2001 is Audley Harrison’s debut against Mike Middleton which got 5 million viewers.

Harrison’s second fight, a points win against Derek McCafferty, got 3.2 million.

His fourth and fifth fights (though they were given less popular slots) came in at 1.2 million. His sixth fight, against Dominic Negus, which was shown on a Wednesday night at 10.30pm rated at 2.3 million. Harrison boxed on the network several times after this but never reached this level again.

Harrison did quite well in comparison to other boxers though. Since 2001, the best BBC ratings for the following boxers are:

Danny Williams v Keith Long, 17th September 2002 (live, Tuesday, 10.30pm slot) 2.1
million

Joe Calzaghe v Mikkel Kessler, 10th November 2007 (delayed, Saturday 1.10pm slot) 1.6 million

Clinton Woods v Glen Johnson, 7th November 2003 (live, Friday, 11.30pm slot) 1.3 million

David Walker v Roman Karmazin, 4th October 2003 (live, Saturday, 11.25pm slot) 1.3 million

Robin Reid v Sven Ottke, 13th December 2003 (delayed, Saturday, 2.30pm slot) 1.1 million

Carl Froch v Charles Adamu, 12th March 2004 (live, Friday, 11.30pm slot) 1.1 million

Ricky Hatton v Floyd Mayweather, 16th December 2007 (delayed, 1pm slot) 0.8 million

I always remember the stupid **** who called himself the head of boxing at the BBC - truly f*cking clueless in my humble opinion of course!!!

The article certainly doesn't say anything is confirmed for sure.

Good news, will they be showing the undercard as well or will SKY get that??

alexpaterson wrote:Good news, will they be showing the undercard as well or will SKY get that??

Why would sky get the undercard and ITV the main event

Anyway as whicker says, this isn't confirmed for definite.

Khan not on sky ppv as he flopped! Mitchell if he wins we be a bigger star in uk than khan by end of year Imo

whicker wrote:The article certainly doesn't say anything is confirmed for sure.

As I said on another thread I know this is a dead cert. I have a mate from the broadcasting as opposed to the boxing side and have seen emails from over a week ago confirming this.

Yea i saw your thread mate and folk were questioning you , fair play seems its on "council" tv

bfchunk wrote:

whicker wrote:The article certainly doesn't say anything is confirmed for sure.

As I said on another thread I know this is a dead cert. I have a mate from the broadcasting as opposed to the boxing side and have seen emails from over a week ago confirming this.

bfchunk wrote:

whicker wrote:The article certainly doesn't say anything is confirmed for sure.

As I said on another thread I know this is a dead cert. I have a mate from the broadcasting as opposed to the boxing side and have seen emails from over a week ago confirming this.

yeah mate i must say i was one of the skeptic's who questioned your thread but its starting to look like you was spot on, so fair play to you!

bfchunk wrote:

whicker wrote:The article certainly doesn't say anything is confirmed for sure.

As I said on another thread I know this is a dead cert. I have a mate from the broadcasting as opposed to the boxing side and have seen emails from over a week ago confirming this.

I stad corrected ,byt why haven itv gone public with it ?

Also do you know id there is anything happening with them and hennessey ?

I'm surprised too that they have not gone public.

Sadly I don't have any info about any long term plans for boxing on ITV. All I know are a few arrangements for the broadcast, which they think finishes at 2am.

bfchunk wrote:I'm surprised too that they have not gone public.

Sadly I don't have any info about any long term plans for boxing on ITV. All I know are a few arrangements for the broadcast, which they think finishes at 2am.

It doesn't even start till just before 3. And that's if HBO show Ortiz v Campbell as the main event. If they show that fight first, Khan v Paulie could start as late as 4.

What other broadcast arrangements are you aware of? I take it the presenters and commentators will be the typical ITV stuff which is fine, but fo you know if the comms will be on-site or off tube?

Thanks

When my friend involved in this told me about the 2am finish I said there was no way it would finish then. The delay announcing the fight could be due to haggling over the fight time. I worry that negotiations mean Khan - Malignaggi is on before Ortiz - Campbell and ITV then don't show the later fight.

For the broadcast what I do know is ITV are setting up a studio in UK. Don't know at this time who the presenter and pundit(s) are. I'd guess it would be Rosenthal and McGuigan.

bfchunk wrote:When my friend involved in this told me about the 2am finish I said there was no way it would finish then. The delay announcing the fight could be due to haggling over the fight time. I worry that negotiations mean Khan - Malignaggi is on before Ortiz - Campbell and ITV then don't show the later fight.

For the broadcast what I do know is ITV are setting up a studio in UK. Don't know at this time who the presenter and pundit(s) are. I'd guess it would be Rosenthal and McGuigan.

Thanks for that. I don't know how things work, but realistically would ITV have any pull whatsoever in getting the fight moved forward time wise? Especially when you count the amount of times we've bent over and been fucked in to having stupidly late start times over here to suit a US audience. Surely HBO will want it at the time they've got it scheduled for (2 fights with a 2.45am start) so it's not shown too early on the west coast.

As for which one goes first, HBO don't give a poop about titles, but you'd have thought Khan v Paulie would be the main event on last, it being in NY and all. It'd be a shame if ITV show the card and then don't have Ortiz v Campbell but probably understandable.

chrisfinch wrote:

bfchunk wrote:When my friend involved in this told me about the 2am finish I said there was no way it would finish then. The delay announcing the fight could be due to haggling over the fight time. I worry that negotiations mean Khan - Malignaggi is on before Ortiz - Campbell and ITV then don't show the later fight.

For the broadcast what I do know is ITV are setting up a studio in UK. Don't know at this time who the presenter and pundit(s) are. I'd guess it would be Rosenthal and McGuigan.

Thanks for that. I don't know how things work, but realistically would ITV have any pull whatsoever in getting the fight moved forward time wise? Especially when you count the amount of times we've bent over and been fucked in to having stupidly late start times over here to suit a US audience. Surely HBO will want it at the time they've got it scheduled for (2 fights with a 2.45am start) so it's not shown too early on the west coast.

As for which one goes first, HBO don't give a poop about titles, but you'd have thought Khan v Paulie would be the main event on last, it being in NY and all. It'd be a shame if ITV show the card and then don't have Ortiz v Campbell but probably understandable.

Are you Rob Palmer?

bfchunk wrote:I'm surprised too that they have not gone public.

Sadly I don't have any info about any long term plans for boxing on ITV. All I know are a few arrangements for the broadcast, which they think finishes at 2am.

Go and ask for me,

leforge wrote:Khan not on sky ppv as he flopped! Mitchell if he wins we be a bigger star in uk than khan by end of year Imo

no chance Khans a household name - only boxing fans know mitchell (as good as he is).

Amir Khan’s American dream looms. The British boy makes his US debut in New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden next month against brash and talented local man Paulie Malignaggi. While Las Vegas and its over-the-top hotels took over from New York as boxing’s major host from the late 1970s, The Garden is still shrouded in the history of big-time boxing, a place to rise to glorious victory or to sink to bitter defeat. It separates the men from the boys.
Olympic runner-up at 17, Khan struck silver as a one-man British boxing team in 2004. How lonely he must have felt squaring up to Cuban great Mario Kindelan in the lightweight final but the steely son of a scrap-metal merchant fought magnificently to concede a 30-22 verdict to a man whose victims included Miguel Cotto and Felix Trinidad. A year later, Amir lured "Super" Mario over here and took his revenge by 19-13 in his own hometown of Bolton. He was ready to hand in his vest.
Khan launched his pro campaign in Bolton in July 2005 with a quick dismissal of outgunned Londoner David Bailey. His hands were a blur as he reeled off 18 straight victories (14 early) before an unknown but unbeaten Colombian by the name of Breidis Prescott sparked him in 54 shocking seconds in Manchester in September 2007, dumping him twice. Khan now faced the second lonely climb of his career.
He made it look easy. In three inspired matches he toppled Irish brawler Oisin Fagin, Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera and Ukrainian stylist Andreas Kotelnik, the latter for the the WBA light-welterweight title, a title he puts on the line against Brooklyn’s Malignaggi on May 15.
Khan makes his second defence. He disposed of another Brooklyn man, Dmitiry Salita, inside a round last December in Britain, dropping Salita three times and then rather ungraciously dropping his British backers to fight out of America, hence this showdown. Malignaggi is better than Salita. He has good speed and a good chin but falls down on his power with just five career stoppages. Khan, who is even quicker but falls down (literally) on an ‘iffy’ chin, has nothing to fear this time. Watch him unload his lightning combinations, whip in his body blows, use the big ring and look a million dollars against a proud Italian with brittle hands and a history of soaking up punishment.
Khan, 23, dazzles Malignaggi on the way to a unanimous decision.

kingfinn wrote:

leforge wrote:Khan not on sky ppv as he flopped! Mitchell if he wins we be a bigger star in uk than khan by end of year Imo

no chance Khans a household name - only boxing fans know mitchell (as good as he is).

Khan is not liked for many reasons. Mitchell will become a star. I can see khan losing this fight