Boxing needs to be on during the weekday

Major fights are typically on Saturday nights, with a rare Friday night offering. Either way, those are the two prime weekend nights. What is the main demographic for sports? Young men. What do young men tend to do on weekend nights? Go out drinking with their boys and chase after young women. Why the hell would you showcase your product on the two nights of the week least likely to have your target audience sitting in front of a television set?

Now some might be saying, that's not true, what about guys with girlfriends or wives, or non-drinkers? Even worse! Try selling that explanation to your girlfriend. "Uh...I'm gonna be indisposed this weekend because I've got to watch a fight." See how far that flies. You might get a couple get-out-of-jail-free cards and probably end up using them on the big pay-per-view events, often major letdowns that make you wonder why you even bother. And of course when epic bloodbaths like Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto or James Kirkland-Alfredo Angulo are going down on regular HBO, you'll be completely oblivious since you're at "couple's night", playing Trivial Pursuit sipping Malbec wondering why no one's gotten a new Trivial Pursuit set since 1989. Then you'll reflect at the end of the year and say "I used to like boxing, but it kinda sucks nowadays" based on the sample size of Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather-Ortiz.

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No reason why HBO air some fights during the week. Hell, why can't NBC Fight Night be on Tuesday or Wendesday?

i dont realy understand this article claiming fri or sat are 2 prime weekend nights.there are 3 weekend nights and sat is perhaps the weakest day there is out of the seven.boxing even up to the middle sixties was perhaps still the number 2 sport there is but now its far from that.it will never return to its former status.the competion of football both pro and colledge basketball pro and colledge baseball devours it.the atmosphere of watching the fights in general is no longer a household type of thing.young folks are into basketball football and in general there interest in the fights is very very small. we are not going to make fans of them in big numbers...our sport will continue to be a nitch sport maybe even a lesser following then hockey.
now several of us clamor for a tuesday or a wensday prime time showing which boxing will get clobbered more with competion from top rated shows.
if the author thinks trivia night or date night is competion then try to watch boxing against a favorite show.please.
the fan base of the general public isnt there and nothing is going to change the numbers in a meaningfull way..captain has a wife so does sooner hardcore others have relationships that does not stop them from watching a fight.the author doesnt understand that...hey guys in reality maybe some of us are watching to many fights.fights that involve crap or even little interest to me for example.
theres hbo and showtime and if you combine there fights its compareable to a weekly broadcast..add friday espn fights then the spanish stations that shows fights and then the smaller cable outlets gives not only the public an oportunity to view fights several days a week but also the hardcore fan...
this is not negative but reality..look a large portion of the population has at least basic cable with espn and some of the spanish networks that show boxing.add that to the hbo and showtime subscribers plus the fact theres youtube which a good portion of the population has computers.
the exposure is there.the interest isnt.not to the point of before.far from it.
also add to the fact that during the week hbo and showtime does show replays of there fights.
i dont want to hear well not everyone doesnt have those chanells.well folks can do what they did in the 50s get together and watch it with someone who does after all a good portion of the population did not have a tv in the early to mid fifties.my family along with others didnot..tvs were expensive.very expensive..
we should be greatfull that boxing is shown as much as it is and the outlets avalible like youtube where a guy can watch a fight in the sat afternoon without taking away from the so called date night.yeah you may know the results but so what...

also it just came to me that with todays modern technology folks can record that fight and not be home because of date night and still watch the fight at there convience.toss out the authors excuse folks missed the ortiz-berto fight etc etc because of so called date night.where theres a will theres a way and today there are many many ways.tons of them.

Put fights on Sunday at 1pm and 4pm from February -August. Have a boxing season.

hardcorebee24 wrote:Put fights on Sunday at 1pm and 4pm from February -August. Have a boxing season.

..not a bad idea...at least for one of thoses times for sure.

dmar5143 wrote:

hardcorebee24 wrote:Put fights on Sunday at 1pm and 4pm from February -August. Have a boxing season.

..not a bad idea...at least for one of thoses times for sure.

[Of Course this will never happen with the politics of the sport]

Four or six man single elimination tournaments for each division from the months of Feb-Aug, preliminaries in the off months. Finals all air on Saturday nights and they would have to stagger the weight classes with double headers on each championship night. No postponements, injured fighters are out and next in line fighters get promoted.

That's a pessimistic view there Dmare. You need to stop thinking of the past when it comes to today.

You are right, there are endless options available then compared to the past. That's why the Beverly Hillbillies was regulary watched by 60 million viewers back in the day. There were only a few channels. No show today draws that kind of ratings regularly. Not even the NFL consistently can draw that.

You can ask Hardcore who works in the business, Friday and Saturdays, especially at night, is not primetime for TV. Why the major networks usually just air re-runs or info commercials during this time. Sunday night is a prime time because people usually home that night because they got work or school the next day.

ESPN FNF is nothing but a time filler catering to hardcore fans. Rarely any big names and ESPN does nothing to advertise the fights. Add on it's on ESPN 2. HBO subscription base is limited. HBO's subscribers have shrunk a lot. It was 40 million, but it's last been reported at 28.6 million subscribers. Showtime has only 17 million subscribers. Shit, Netflix has got more subscribers than Showtime and Starz and soon could beat out HBO.

That's what has hurt boxing more than anything. Not ABC belts and all the crap. All big fights are on the most limited platforms at the least watched time during the week.

grant its not pessamistic at all.its reality and you keep coming up with excuses why boxing is failing because its not on national free tv.in prime time.when you get realistic then write something that makes sence..what network will take off a prime time show and put boxing weekly in its place to face other strong time competion.none.doing this they take a severe drop in revinew since ratings determine the price of air time on a peticular night and time slot.you saw what lights out did.it got canceled after its viewship started to get lower.the freddie roach thing drew the worst viewership i ever heared off.you complain that a 5 pm saturday is a lousy time to show a k brothers fight.espns budjet isnt geared towards big time names.be happy its shown.
now if there were only a few channels like before then guess what boxing will never be shown today.thats fact since the sport has little following amoung the total amount of viewers out there.
again to me you deminstate time after time that you dont understand the writen word..there litterly is no excuse for anyone not to watch a fight and i gave several reasons why including youtube.thats if theres a huge following that actualy wants to watch boxing regulary which there is not.
i dont need to ask hardcore or anyone else what works in the entertainment business since at one time i was involved with that and most certainly understand peak viewership.thats something business wise you dont understand.desireabilty of a show a large targeted audience demographics of whats working all come into play plus more.boxing has none of thoses things for a network of free tv to take a show off the air at 9 pm or 10 pm thats doing well against other top competion and substitute boxing which a vast majority of the public cares nothing about.they would fire you instantly if that was your solution to programing.
boxing is shown today a lot as i stated in my post.its avalible to everyone via all the outlets including you tube which many folks have a computer.thoses that dont but want to see a fight go to the library to watch a fight...look while we are at it why not show hockey wensday night also.on free national tv during the regular season.again the beverly hillbiles mean shit to the topic but thats a constant for you .by the way in the day of a few channels and the hillbillies era boxing was cancelled one of there nights in 1964 due to pooor ratings and was replaced by shows to pick ratings and revenues up.thats when boxing still had a decent percentage of fans compared to today.thats fact not something that you toss out of thin air like you constantly do.
hardcore came up with a decent idea but no comment from you.none.business wise there is not one solid economic reason for boxing weekly to be put on prime time free national network tv.none.

Actually, it's you that fails to understand reading comprehension. Did I say they should put boxing on network TV during the weekday? No. I said HBO should put some big match-ups during the weekday. Or NBC Sports. Or ESN. Instead of Fridays and Saturday when most young people are out. Hell, HBO should put some fights on during the week on TNT.

Casial fans are not going to google boxing matches that happened a week later. Nor are they going to watch a Freddie Roach documentary that comes on at erratic times on a pay channel. Boxing does not get exposure unless it's major PPV where money is spent advertising. Most people don't know when a fight like Khan vs Peterson is on.

BTW, every sport in the US besides the NFL ratings have declined. MLB's ratings are not even close to what they were in baseball's Golden Age. Last year was the lowest rated World Series ever. NBA ratings been on the decline until last year but still not close to what they use to be.

ill buy an attempt to try to put boxing on wensday night on hbo.or tnt.actualy in baseball veiwership is up in huge numbers over the golden age.in that era baseball had one game a week.thus a decent ratings.today there shown daily over multichanells a differnt game in a differnt location. .its reginal like chicago stations ny stations etc etc.the major league baseball package that you can buy adds to that viewership.plus several games a week on espn.overall when all is considered baseball is doing excellent or they would not get the huge money to show it from tv folks.again the casual fan is just that in boxing and im not so sure a wensday night on hbo changes that since again there competion is far greater then sat night overall.its worth a try though..they can always go back to sat night if ratings dont show a big increase because they are replacing a regular show that has a following and draws bigger sponsor money..overall boxing has several problems that lead fans away from it and interest starts with youger folks to build a long term fan and numbers.myself i think theres more then enough evidence that boxing has a fan base or potential fan base that has limits on it.a low number to a high number as a spread and thoses numbers are not good...its been like that for several years now..its mainstream as a sport is finished.its a nitch sport and will stay that way.our hope is to make it a bigger nitch sport in reality.
there is no evidence that anything beyound that is a good possibilty.none.its like swizz cheze there are too many holes to fill..fill one and we will all be happy.

I agree it will be a nich sport. But shit, everything is nich. That's how it goes with endless channels and options.

Baseball ratings have gone down. In the 80s, the World Series averaged 20 plus million viewers. The last two World Series averaged 8-10 million viewers. Unless it's a big market team, ratings in baseball been down.

Outside the NFL, that's how it is pretty much with all sports. Unless big names are involved to lure in casual fans, medicre ratings.

I do think boxing can get a bigger audience by being available. But not when the best match-ups on pay channels with limited subscriber base or PPVs on the weekend