“Less Than 2k People Are Going To Watch”, Eddie Hearn Explains Why PBC Shows Are Not Picked Up In The UK
- PBC/Showtime Cards Lack International Broadcasting, Fight Fans In The UK Miss Out On Watching
- Eddie Hearn Believes This Is Down To The Limited Audience These Cards Would Get In The UK
- The Nicheness Of Boxing Globally Means Viewership Is Tiny In The UK For US/Int Fights
There were three major cards throughout the weekend and two of them were not available to watch for UK fight fans. This is a reoccurring problem especially with PBC cards that more often than not are not shown on UK TV.
Fight fans cannot understand why promoters are limiting their audience through a lack of significant international broadcast deals.
Carlos Adames’ ninth-round stoppage of Julian Williams on a PBC card with competitive matchups was not shown in the UK.
Eddie Hearn, who promoted the third card that day Berlanga-Quigley – which was available globally, explained to US reporters why this was the case.
Eddie Hearn On The Lack Of UK TV For PBC/Ioka-Franco
“The audience is very small, Hearn told American media, “When I was with Sky, we use to acquire a lot of US cards and at 4 am in the morning, there isn’t a lot of people watching live.”
Hearn acknowledges this is also seen through his own US shows that stream on DAZN. “We see that tonight, same for Berlanga Quigley in the UK. 10-15k people watching live. In the morning, they’ll (the rest of the audience wil) watch it on demand.”
Japanese fights and cards are some of the best in the whole of the sport and they are mostly televised ONLY domestically although this is not necessarily to do with viewership.
“A great example is Ioka-Franco, it’s so niche, so niche…If DAZN have close to a million subscribers (in the US), do you know how many people would’ve watched Ioka-Franco? It’s so niche.”
“That’s why cards like the Showtime card tonight isn’t acquired by the UK because they’re saying ‘We’re not going to pay 30-50k dollars because less than 2k people are going to watch’.”
“It’s just a business” Eddie Hearn concluded.
Image Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom
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