BoxRec

Forgive the forensic approach to this post, but I'm a boxing fan who works in marketing.

I checked some company records online today and noticed that two companies associated with a certain British Hall of Fame promoter are heavily in debt.

Boxing Channel Media Ltd (trading as allegedly), net worth 2015: -£8,615,000.00
Queensberry Promotions Ltd, net worth 2015: -£4,264,307.00

Bear in mind these figures are last year, before what has been an awful period for the promoter and the channel. It's clear that Rainham Steel (net worth £37,309,148.00) is propping up the channel and to be fair to Bill Ives he's supporting boxing.

Sadly, I believe this boxing channel would need a miracle to stay afloat. Not just more money, but a new approach to promotion and value.

http://moneyweek.com/penny-sleuth-the-h ... -fanatics/ This article from 2014 gives us some idea of where the channel is at now. In 2014, the channel had the likes of Tyson Fury, Chris Eubank Jr, Carl Frampton, Nathan Cleverly, Dereck Chisora, all of whom have since boxed on other channels and not returned.
It mentioned that BN had 100,000 subscribers at (what was then) £10 per month. So, £1m a month. This seems a lot, but the article states that this isn't enough to break even. The point I'm making is that, if 2014 represents the glory days of the channel compared to now, then it's over.

I have subscribed over two stints, including a long time when I didn't even watch the channel but still wanted to support the cause. Even in the golden era of two years ago, I was concerned that BN was lacking in terms of marketing, production and event management. Areas that Matchroom and Sky have excelled in. But now, with the likes of Billy Joe Saunders and Terry Flanagan unable to get the big fights they deserve, I think the door has closed for that HoF promoter and his channel.

I'm by no means a Sky fanboy, but the quality has been rising for the UK's number one boxing promoter, whilst it has plummeted for his main domestic rival. Anyone else got this feeling?

It hasn't delivered what it promised to do at the launch, I cancelled in the end , fed up with fights getting cancelled all the time

Isnt Bill Ives of Rainham Steel fame the majority shareholder these days ? I assume the channel will continue for as long as Ives can offset the losses from Bnation against profits made in area areas of his business portfolio.

"All the belts" allegedly sub / Sky Box Office. March/April 2017. gogogo

The last few months I've considered cancelling but said I'll keep it for a certain fight they have later in the month but by the time that fight comes round its normally been postponed or cancelled but then they have something else scheduled so I keep it anyway but then that fight ends up falling through becoming a merry go round of disappointment starting to feel like there taking the piss out of us they really need to finish the year strongly. Do feel for them though with putting a lot of time into Fury the last few months for no return

I'll be gutted if it's goes under, admittedly I'm not subscribed at the minute due to the lack of domestic content but I'll happily join up again once this is sorted.

I was a subscriber until about April this year. I tuned in one Saturday night to watch a big fight and was advised that I had to be a subscriber? I couldn't work out what was wrong.
I missed the fight and contacted Bnation on Monday. They told me I hadn't paid my subscription that month and had sent me an email. I checked with my wife who could see the direct debit hadn't come off. Back onto BNation to ask why. They advised me to contact another company who deal with the direct debits. Eventually we worked out that my debit card had been renewed (routinely) and the debit couldn't be taken off because the number had changed. They confirmed an email had been sent, but I definitely didn't receive it.
So, I attempted to renew my subscription but the company were not receiving my emails, nor was I receiving there's. In short, they weren't interested, so I gave up.
No regrets, I've missed nothing.

For a business to survive and thrive it needs to keep growing and improving. I doubt BN has done that since it started. It's a good channel for getting shows that sky wouldn't cover and we would otherwise have missed but customer service and it's profile are poor. It's been hit by cancellations and it's decent fighters are. Ring frozen out by the sky monopoly.

Hearn is treating BN fighters like Assad is treating the people of Aleppo- starve them of business and eventually they will die or have to join them.

It's only )12 a month which isn't a lot of money to me so I keep my subscription going.

dalcumly wrote:I was a subscriber until about April this year. I tuned in one Saturday night to watch a big fight and was advised that I had to be a subscriber? I couldn't work out what was wrong.
I missed the fight and contacted Bnation on Monday. They told me I hadn't paid my subscription that month and had sent me an email. I checked with my wife who could see the direct debit hadn't come off. Back onto BNation to ask why. They advised me to contact another company who deal with the direct debits. Eventually we worked out that my debit card had been renewed (routinely) and the debit couldn't be taken off because the number had changed. They confirmed an email had been sent, but I definitely didn't receive it.
So, I attempted to renew my subscription but the company were not receiving my emails, nor was I receiving there's. In short, they weren't interested, so I gave up.
No regrets, I've missed nothing.

Same happened to me when I lost my bank card. Tuned in and I was no longer subscribed. Had to pay a subscription charge to renew of £8. They said they'd repay it the following month but they never did. Can't be arsed waiting on a phone to reclaim it but the customer service on the phone was piss poor.

quit yer beeling.

it's been tough, but still good fights on. liam walsh last week and ryan walsh this week. lomachenko v walters coming soon along with the cardiff card.

For a service to be worth a paid subscription it needs to be premium content. For me, it's like subscribing to Premier League content then being asked to pay separately to watch matches from the poorest teams of the Championship.

The odd hiccup can be forgiven, especially when it's a niche such as boxing. However, the list of flawed areas is staggering

• The Freeview channel
  The app
  Customer service
  Roster of UK fighters
  Lack of cross-platform promotion
  Lack of PR
  Cancelled shows
  Rumours of PPV
  FW's bitter attitude toward rivals and fighters
  Unwillingness to respond to competition
  Stubborn attitude towards dual promotions

I tried making a list of the good bits but they were all things which you would expect at the bare minimum. Barry Jones is the only bonus I can see. Sorry if all this sounds brutal but you can't expect to run a premium media business if the overall product is crap.

The only elements of Sky Sports boxing that I can whinge about are the pricing and amount of adverts.

surfthehurf wrote:For a service to be worth a paid subscription it needs to be premium content. For me, it's like subscribing to Premier League content then being asked to pay separately to watch matches from the poorest teams of the Championship.

The odd hiccup can be forgiven, especially when it's a niche such as boxing. However, the list of flawed areas is staggering

• The Freeview channel
  The app
  Customer service
  Roster of UK fighters
  Lack of cross-platform promotion
  Lack of PR
  Cancelled shows
  Rumours of PPV
  FW's bitter attitude toward rivals and fighters
  Unwillingness to respond to competition
  Stubborn attitude towards dual promotions

I tried making a list of the good bits but they were all things which you would expect at the bare minimum. Barry Jones is the only bonus I can see. Sorry if all this sounds brutal but you can't expect to run a premium media business if the overall product is crap.

The only elements of Sky Sports boxing that I can whinge about are the pricing and amount of adverts.

The overall product isn't crap in my opinion .

The international stuff is pure quality 90% of the time, they show big fights.

They have been showing GGG, Kovalev , Ward, Mayweather, Gonzalez you name it and they have been on allegedly on a regular basis since it started.

Cant defend the domestic stuff, its been shite lately

I've not been impressed with their output recently however the channel is now over 5 years old. They've done well to make the channel available to virtually everyone in the UK. It's on SKY, Virgin Media, Talk Talk, connected Freeview, Amazon Fire TV, Android app, Apple app and through their dedicated online stream website. Problem is they don't promote it enough and don't do new sign up deals often enough.

My understanding is their looking to bring back double event Saturdays. A show from the UK or Europe then over to the States a few hours later for another live card. They've landed 4 of the following 6 cards and are confident of securing a 5th. Shows should be confirmed in the next 5 to 10 days.

22nd October - David Lemeux Vs. Cristian Fabian Rios
5th November - Manny Pacquiao Vs. Jessie Vargas
12th November - Danny Garcia Vs. Samuel Vargas
3rd December - Dennis Lebedev Vs. Murat Gassiev
17th December - Alexander Povetkin Vs. Bermane Stiverne
17th December - Orlando Solido Vs. Takashi Miura

The app situation is a fornicating disgrace, as is the lack of HD on virgin. But I'll keep shelling out as they have some great stuff on when they get it right and sky wouldn't be showing most of them if bn wasn't on.

The live fights haven't been great recently but overall this year I'd say they've covered more than their fair share of good cards particularly from overseas.

Aside from that I enjoy Buncey's show, Boxing Matters, A Fight to Remember, the occasional Cassius and Helder and once in a while they have a real gem of a fight on Greatest Boxing Classics - this week they've been showing Bert Cooper v Chris Byrd. All these programs are imo of far greater interest to the boxing enthusiast than Sky's sporadic reruns of the same old boxing gold shite and their live shows which are liberally sprinkled with inane cheerleading for the house fighters.

I think it's admirable what FW has tried to do in setting up a dedicated boxing channel but I agree it seems doomed to fail in the not too distant future

CaptainSpacerod wrote:The live fights haven't been great recently but overall this year I'd say they've covered more than their fair share of good cards particularly from overseas.

Aside from that I enjoy Buncey's show, Boxing Matters, A Fight to Remember, the occasional Cassius and Helder and once in a while they have a real gem of a fight on Greatest Boxing Classics - this week they've been showing Bert Cooper v Chris Byrd. All these programs are imo of far greater interest to the boxing enthusiast than Sky's sporadic reruns of the same old boxing gold shite and their live shows which are liberally sprinkled with inane cheerleading for the house fighters.

I think it's admirable what FW has tried to do in setting up a dedicated boxing channel but I agree it seems doomed to fail in the not too distant future

Haye vs Valuev on boxing gold has been repeated about 100 times

chrisnew86 wrote:

CaptainSpacerod wrote:The live fights haven't been great recently but overall this year I'd say they've covered more than their fair share of good cards particularly from overseas.

Aside from that I enjoy Buncey's show, Boxing Matters, A Fight to Remember, the occasional Cassius and Helder and once in a while they have a real gem of a fight on Greatest Boxing Classics - this week they've been showing Bert Cooper v Chris Byrd. All these programs are imo of far greater interest to the boxing enthusiast than Sky's sporadic reruns of the same old boxing gold shite and their live shows which are liberally sprinkled with inane cheerleading for the house fighters.

I think it's admirable what FW has tried to do in setting up a dedicated boxing channel but I agree it seems doomed to fail in the not too distant future

Haye vs Valuev on boxing gold has been repeated about 100 times

It was bad enough watching it once.

The question of quality is borderline irrelevant. The bottom line is that as a subscription channel it's been proven pretty conclusively that it can't generate the numbers it needs to make it a viable business.

chad wrote:I've not been impressed with their output recently however the channel is now over 5 years old. They've done well to make the channel available to virtually everyone in the UK. It's on SKY, Virgin Media, Talk Talk, connected Freeview, Amazon Fire TV, Android app, Apple app and through their dedicated online stream website. Problem is they don't promote it enough and don't do new sign up deals often enough.

My understanding is their looking to bring back double event Saturdays. A show from the UK or Europe then over to the States a few hours later for another live card. They've landed 4 of the following 6 cards and are confident of securing a 5th. Shows should be confirmed in the next 5 to 10 days.

22nd October - David Lemeux Vs. Cristian Fabian Rios
5th November - Manny Pacquiao Vs. Jessie Vargas
12th November - Danny Garcia Vs. Samuel Vargas
3rd December - Dennis Lebedev Vs. Murat Gassiev
17th December - Alexander Povetkin Vs. Bermane Stiverne
17th December - Orlando Solido Vs. Takashi Miura

Fights stateside are crap until Kovalev Ward which is now on Sky. How can October be a bad month in America ?? All down to Uncle Al and HBO.

If the channel does go under I just hope the international fights get picked up.

I've said it for years for Fw to compete with Matchroom they need to move everything to BT?

Correct Naandrew. Sky Sports are the big boys, BT Sport are leading the rest of the pack. A tie-in between Bxntion and BT is the clear choice. Imagine if you got BN's content and sprinkled it into BT's schedules, you'd start wondering how on earth it existed as a dedicated channel.
Looks like BT have 3 main channels then 6 Extra ones. The network is on the rise, with many having it as part of their broadband package and other Sky subscribers paying extra for the football content. BT might even wait around for FW to retire and/or go bankrupt before dipping their toes into boxing. Then they're not tied down.

Barry McGuigan's Cyclone Promotions have a deal with Channel 5, and there's talk of something happening on ITV. This leaves a list of the following promoters:

• Hatton
  Hennessy
  PBC (Al Haymon)
  (doubtful) Kellie Maloney
  Hayemaker Promotions

Plus there are the fighters who are free agents or only loosely tied to promoters, such as Eubank Jr and Dave Allen. And the Olympic medallists Joshua Buatsi, Joe Joyce.

surfthehurf wrote:
The only elements of Sky Sports boxing that I can whinge about are the pricing and amount of adverts.

Are you for real???

Lack of international coverage.
The refusal to acknowledge that any fight that Sky don't show is relevant or even happening.
Under cards and generally main events full of home fighters getting walkovers against sub standard opposition.
The continual drive to test the public boundaries of acceptability and what they can get away with whilst still charging PPV.
The commentators who follow the party line and say what their paymasters tell them to say.
The insults to the intelligence when they pretend fights are going to be 50/50
The exploitation of the casual fans lack of knowledge and ignoring of anyone with half a clue about boxing.

I could go on all day....

I'm a subscriber to BN and have been since day one. I even had another subscription for my laptop when I worked down south. If it goes tits up I'll be gutted but I'm sure someone else will step in. It won't be the same as we won't be getting full cards and whoever takes it on will probably pick and choose what fights they show. That might force Frank to get his finger out!

Ins huge fan of BN.

They seemed to of listened and are showing more domestic content. The foreign shows are weekly and usually top drawer.

They could do with spicing up the studio and giving more airtime to the fantastic Alex Steedman.

I'm still paying it to support the cause but don't find myself watching it enough. They do really seem to be struggling to put out much quality local content.

Supremo wrote:

surfthehurf wrote:
The only elements of Sky Sports boxing that I can whinge about are the pricing and amount of adverts.

Are you for real???

Lack of international coverage.
The refusal to acknowledge that any fight that Sky don't show is relevant or even happening.
Under cards and generally main events full of home fighters getting walkovers against sub standard opposition.
The continual drive to test the public boundaries of acceptability and what they can get away with whilst still charging PPV.
The commentators who follow the party line and say what their paymasters tell them to say.
The insults to the intelligence when they pretend fights are going to be 50/50
The exploitation of the casual fans lack of knowledge and ignoring of anyone with half a clue about boxing.

I could go on all day....

I think the guy is either new to the sport ( nothing wrong with that ) or brainwashed by the sales men over at Sky.

If we want to watch world class boxing from around the world on an almost weekly basis it's BN that have it. I find Bunces no nonesense approch and shite jokes keep me awake till the small hours to

I liked it last week when one of the corners were effing and blinding in between rounds and the commentator goes " not going to apologise for the swearing, this is boxing "

BN keep it real