BoxRec

Why do people believe Sky PPV is just boxers and promoters being greedy?

Sky are the ones who are being greedy, because they will not pay for fights. They pay about ten per cent of what they paid 5-6 years ago. They like PPV because it costs them nothing, they make a profit, the fighter and promoter takes the risk.
DeGale v Groves would never have happened but for PPV. Unless Sky's policy changes and they start investing, without PPV there will never be another big fight in the UK.

gobbles wrote:They pay about ten per cent of what they paid 5-6 years ago.

Really? Is that fact or just anecdotal? Is that the total they pay across the sport or per fight?

Glyn Leach wrote:I can identify with many of the complaints already mentioned but I'll just mention the one thing I really hate and cannot understand: Adverts between rounds on PPV fights. HBO don't do it, Showtime don't do it, the only ones who do are Sky - and it's taking the piss. Obviously I understand the value of advertising revenue but in my own case, with Boxing Monthly, I set a figure for the amount of editorial pages I am willing to give up to adverts, which often costs us money. But people do not buy BM to read adverts and people don't buy PPVs to watch adverts. We already pay for any form of Sky coverage at all, then we are asked £15 on top for a PPV. Sky are absolutely coining it at our expense and it's inexcusable and disrespectful IMO. No one else in the world does it, just them. And it's wrong. Particularly as Sky TV as a whole is so fond of telling us how much they are in profit at the end of each financial year. Stop it Sky, stop treating us like mugs.

At the risk of siding with the devil, is it really a fair comparison to say that because HBO dont have adverts, Sky shouldn't?

HBO charge a subscription, like Sky, but with HBO you get just one channel (or one group of channels); with Sky you get the full Sky Sports and other Sky channels (depending on your package). A Sky PPV costs £15; HBO charge $50 (£31). Sky have a maximum audience of 60m across the UK; HBO have 300m. Basically for any single fight, HBO earn a significant amount more than Sky.

But when it comes to the costs, there's very little difference. The production costs will be similar - broadcast, salaries, guest slots, etc. The fighters will also be demanding similar fees - we have seen this recently in the Amir Khan case - he will be valuing himself against his peers in the US, for example, Tim Bradley and Victor Ortiz. If he knows they are earning £1m from their TV deals, he is going to demand the same. But the "problem" for Sky is that £1m from their revenue streams is a bigger portion of the equivalent revenue streams HBO receive. So they need to maximise their revenue from other sources in order to afford the fees being demanded.

Show more undercard please, even just regular sky saturday fight night only show 2 fights when there`s normally 8-10 fights on the bill. I know not everone wants to watch all the undercard, but a lot of real boxing fans do, could even show the undercard mid-week when there`s loads of crap on

G0mez wrote:Did I mention that Sky should let us enjoy the ring entrances ?

Instead they turn off the crowds, turn down the entrance music and procede to say "Bernard Hopkins is coming to the ring..... here he is... making his way to the ring.... Hopkins... here he comes.... making his way to the ring..... "

Just pipe down please.

I agree, It was an Interesting Intro and all we could hear was the commentators rambling on.

My gripe of late is that when they show a fight from America (Kudos to them for showing them) they don't have the Interviews after. In April we had Maidana and Morales who would of been Interviewed by HBO why could we not get the Interview shown on British tv?

The only Interview shown on that entire card was James Kirkland after he last to Ishida.

The Pascal-Hopkins fight was shown on tape delay, the fight finished and they went back to the studio and with all due respect I dont care what they have to say, get Hopkins on there that's what we all wanted to see what he had to say.

SKY could crawl back into the sewer it came from ??? thats my advice

i was perfectly happy with analogue and 18m on terrestrial , thankyou

Chris W 1982 wrote:Johnny Nelson has annoyed me more and more in the build up to the last weekend's fight.

His bias towards Degale was an absolute disgrace and he deserved a reprimand in my opinion.

Also, his rehearsed jokes with Adam Smith do nothing but make me cringe.

COULDNT AGREE MORE ABSOLUTE DRIVEL IS NELSON AND SMITH IMHO, SMITH COULD BE GOOD BUT HE OVER PLAYS EVERY SINGLE WORD HE SPEAKS TO DRAMITISE IT, JUST SPEAK NORMAL! AND STOP DOING THE SILLY OVER ENTHUSIASTIC EYE STARE.


IAN DARKES THE BEST BY A MILE LETS SEE MORE OF HIM.


NELSON TO GO, BOB MEE TO GO (BORING VOICE ,DEPRESSING) WATT TO RETIRE LETS SEE MORE OF SPENCER OLIVER IAN DARKE AND HOW ABOUT BRINGING BACK PAUL DEMPSEY HE WAS GOOD AND WAVE GOOD BYE TO DAVE DARTS FOR BOXING! THE TRUTH

apophenic wrote:jim watt starts off with an opinion on how things will happen and twists his entire commentary to suit that pre-existing opinion...

whoever said he pours scorn on things is also correct...is it that hard to find someone a little bit more enthusiastic about the sport and it's trappings?

AGREED

funso banjo baby wrote:SKY could crawl back into the sewer it came from ??? thats my advice

i was perfectly happy with analogue and 18m on terrestrial , thankyou

Things change, though. Sky has at least always shown consistent weekly boxing- something terrestiral never did.

Chris W 1982 wrote:Johnny Nelson has annoyed me more and more in the build up to the last weekend's fight.

His bias towards Degale was an absolute disgrace and he deserved a reprimand in my opinion.

Also, his rehearsed jokes with Adam Smith do nothing but make me cringe.

Couldn't agree more!

Terrrrry wrote:

Chris W 1982 wrote:Johnny Nelson has annoyed me more and more in the build up to the last weekend's fight.

His bias towards Degale was an absolute disgrace and he deserved a reprimand in my opinion.

Also, his rehearsed jokes with Adam Smith do nothing but make me cringe.

Couldn't agree more!

x 3

I think the reason McCrory and Rawling were blathering so much is they were trying to cover for the fact they weren't actually at the fight, but in a studio in west london.

the truth wrote:

Chris W 1982 wrote:Johnny Nelson has annoyed me more and more in the build up to the last weekend's fight.

His bias towards Degale was an absolute disgrace and he deserved a reprimand in my opinion.

Also, his rehearsed jokes with Adam Smith do nothing but make me cringe.

COULDNT AGREE MORE ABSOLUTE DRIVEL IS NELSON AND SMITH IMHO, SMITH COULD BE GOOD BUT HE OVER PLAYS EVERY SINGLE WORD HE SPEAKS TO DRAMITISE IT, JUST SPEAK NORMAL! AND STOP DOING THE SILLY OVER ENTHUSIASTIC EYE STARE.


IAN DARKES THE BEST BY A MILE LETS SEE MORE OF HIM.


NELSON TO GO, BOB MEE TO GO (BORING VOICE ,DEPRESSING) WATT TO RETIRE LETS SEE MORE OF SPENCER OLIVER IAN DARKE AND HOW ABOUT BRINGING BACK PAUL DEMPSEY HE WAS GOOD AND WAVE GOOD BYE TO DAVE DARTS FOR BOXING! THE TRUTH

Ian Darke got a huge deal to do ESPN (US version) football after the World Cup. Just does boxing now when he can as a hobby.

whicker wrote:

funso banjo baby wrote:SKY could crawl back into the sewer it came from ??? thats my advice

i was perfectly happy with analogue and 18m on terrestrial , thankyou

Things change, though. Sky has at least always shown consistent weekly boxing- something terrestiral never did.

of what quality tho?

boxing was all over the tv in the 80's

Larry Holmes and Hagler on sat afternoons.... Rocky Kelly during the week etc etc...you cant compare the terrestrial era with the consumerised/brandilised crap that sky charges you for ...TWICE ...AND WITH ADVERTS THROWN IN.

They should have kept Gary Mason (god rest his soul) he was informed, funny and knowledgable.

That's why I love watching Friday Night Fights on ESPN. Teddy Atlas knows his stuff.

Rupert, if you're out there, make some of the above happen!

I am sick of the over dramatic nature of all of their boxing shows. The cliches need to go, its just so embarrasing. I think they need to be more innovative rather than ripping off HBO all the time. Someone at Sky must have some creative flair, surely?

And seriously, their team is ridiculous, how many pundits, experts, commentators, interviewers do you need? Its getting farcical.

Why would you be paying for; Smith, Robinson, Watt, Darke, Nelson, Dave, Barry, Calzaghe, Woodhall, Mee, all to be at one show? It's far too over the top.

When ITV did the Big Fight Live they would just have Jim Rosenthal presenting who I fought was very good and very knowledgable about the fight game and would have Barry McGuigan ringside with him and chipping in between rounds to give us his opinion on how the fight is going. Gabriel Clarke backstage and doing the features on the fighters and with John Rawling and Duke McKenzie doing the commentary. It is simple and effective not how Sky do it who turn mob handed to every damn major fight.

For me Sky's team should be

Adam Smith doing the presenting,
Ed Robinson backstage.
McGuigan and guest with Smith in the studio
John Rawling do the commentary with Jim Watt.

Simple as that.

IRLangmaid25 wrote:When ITV did the Big Fight Live they would just have Jim Rosenthal presenting who I fought was very good and very knowledgable about the fight game and would have Barry McGuigan ringside with him and chipping in between rounds to give us his opinion on how the fight is going. Gabriel Clarke backstage and doing the features on the fighters and with John Rawling and Duke McKenzie doing the commentary. It is simple and effective not how Sky do it who turn mob handed to every damn major fight.

For me Sky's team should be

Adam Smith doing the presenting,
Ed Robinson backstage.
McGuigan and guest with Smith in the studio
John Rawling do the commentary with Jim Watt.

Simple as that.

You can get rid of Jim Watt anytime for me. He's just not my cuppa tea.

I like Ian Darke over Rawling and Glen McCrory is canny.

(1) Why is Ian Darke on a reduced schedule?
(2) Who the hell is Bob Mee?

1) PPV is never going away and boxing will never be what it was until it’s back on the BBC and ITV. McGuigan was watched by 18 million viewers… Benn and Eubank 16 million… SKY hijacked boxing and turned it into a minority sport. Then they can offer the excuse that well premiership football is far more popular… Rugby gets more coverage now than boxing…almost an impossible thought when I was a kid. But we have SKY now and I think the guys are basically good.

2) Bias is always going to be there (see the pro-Williams comments on HBO in Martinez-Williams II) but there is no room for it in the commentary. Ray Leonard also enjoyed a lot of bias from commentators. Jim Watt s usually pretty good at countering any over enthusiasm from the commentator.

3) Team numbers… I love seeing all the old pros and don’t care how many there are. I like hearing all their opinions no matter what. I do wish though that they’d have on a few older fighters. I’d love to see guys like Minter, Honeyghan, Green, etc… I do think Jim Watt is excellent. He reads psychology well and seems to get the momentum swings before the others. I think Nelson is a good guy and is good at talking to fighters, agree he was to pro-Degale last time out… if they are mates then just say it. Or if he’s a fan then just say it. I don’t mind the bias as long as it’s out in the open. McGuigan is up there with Watt for me. he understands the psychology very well. When Degale said, “I’m cool, calm and collected” it didn’t mean that he actually really was. Barry was the only one who questioned it. Sting sang “walking on the moon” but he was actually in a recording studio…

SKY are here to say and I think they do a good job. Do think though they missed a trick with Mickey Rourke. They should have done a proper interview with him.

horndawg80 wrote:(1) Why is Ian Darke on a reduced schedule?
(2) Who the hell is Bob Mee?

Bob Mee if my memory serves me correctly is usually found on Eurosport. Everyone goes on about HBO and their team where they have Lampley anchor and commentating or Bob Papa if it is After Dark with Kellerman and or Manny Steward or Roy Jones depending on who is available, you also forget that also have Dave Bontempo too whose the commentary on the International feed and Spanish speaking commentators on HBO plus for their Latino subscribers in the domestic market.

I would love David Haye in Jim Watt's place.

horndawg80 wrote:(1) Why is Ian Darke on a reduced schedule?

Darke does a lot more football these days now.

Bob Mee worked for many years behind the scenes at Sky as the stats man. I'm not sure if he continued this role when he became a commentator for Eurosport. I believe he has now left Eurosport, presumably for Sky.

I think Ian Darke is on a reduced schedule because of his commitment on ESPN - although not sure don't have this channel, but I am sure he signed for them last year (Football). Nice to hear he can do some Sky work though.

Get Jim Rosenthal to do the Anchoring and Commentating.

Yeah Stu, Darke is ESPN's main man for Premiership football, also covers the odd MLS game for them too so has a much busier schedule these days.