Boxing and TV - Part Two - BBC by Ian McNeilly Apr 14th 2008

In the second part of his series on television coverage of boxing, BBN's Editor Ian McNeilly casts his eye over ‘the nation's broadcaster' – the BBC. BBC You can say what you like about the ‘fragmentation' of ‘viewing experiences' but for many people the BBC still holds a certain cache that other channels don't. It's still the nation's broadcaster. As their Director of Sport, Roger Mosey, points out, the channel can bring the nation together in a way that others can't. Unlike other channels though, the BBC Charter dictates that they have to cater for everybody, as much as is possible. This means that a huge amount of their budget goes into feeding the country's endless obsession with football and making boxing just one of dozens of minority sports the broadcaster has to cover. Just as ITV has pinned its flag to an Olympian's mast, BBC did the same after the 2000 Sydney games. Audley Harrison could talk the talk and had seemingly walked the walk by winning the most prestigious title in amateur boxing – going one better than Khan would do four years on. To be blunt, the BBC signed a relatively big money deal with Harrison and they got their fingers burned. Everything in the garden seemed rosy when he made his debut against Mike Middleton in May 2001. The fight was given a big hurrah and was shown on BBC1 just before 10pm on a Saturday night – a slot promoters and boxers alike would dream of. The ratings were good. Five million tuned in to see him blow away an opponent in the first round which gave older viewers uncomfortable flashbacks to another heavy prospect who was fed stiffs on the network – Frank Bruno. But Bruno and Harrison were and are worlds apart in terms of public perception. Harrison was never truly embraced by either the layman or the boxing fans and as his performances deteriorated, so did his ratings. He would come nowhere near to equalling the ratings success of his debut, despite enjoying many more prime-time Saturday night BBC1 slots. In saying that, he outperformed all other boxers shown on the network around the same time. The BBC's output now is mainly a mix of amateur boxing and delayed coverage of the best of the pro game, including Calzaghe v Kessler and Mayweather v Hatton. A BBC source outlined the importance of properly advertising the fights between other shows such as Football Focus. Apparently the Hatton fight was very much a last-minute deal and didn't get as much promotion as it might have done and therefore the ratings suffered as a result – although that might also be because it was massively successful as a live event. Facts and figures 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 Amateur boxing, whether shown live or delayed, usually brings in just less than a million viewers. An England match against Russia, shown at midday on a Saturday in December 2006 was the best rated amateur show in recent years, with an audience of 1 million. Roger Mosey, Director of BBC Sport What determines whether any sport or sporting event gets television coverage? If you go back to the BBC Charter and look at our purpose, we do national events that bring the nation together. The World Cup, the Olympic Games, Six Nations – and we have a portfolio of other sports. We are multi-platform too as we have local radio, national radio, online. The BBC can bring the nation together in a way other can't such as pay TV. We should also provide what the market doesn't in terms of minority sports. What are the positives of boxing in comparison with other sports? I grew up when boxing was a very big thing in the era of Henry Cooper. I'm from Bradford so I had a particular reason to follow Richard Dunne and I remember his fight with Muhammad Ali. Boxing at its best is a talking point though in the last 10 or 15 years there have not been so many of them. However, 2007 was a very significant year for the sport, topped off with Joe Calzaghe winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. What are the negatives of boxing in comparison with other sports? There is a problem. It's true that for terrestrial television when the boxing gets really good and very prominent it happens at three or four o'clock in the morning in Las Vegas. We can build up fighters and then miss the really big ones. How expensive is boxing in comparison to other sports? I'm not going to give a value judgement but it's a fact – just look at the Hatton fight on pay-per-view which was an excellent model and worked incredibly well. Terrestrial television just can't match that. The structure of the sport is more complex than other sports too. When you are dealing with individual promoters it's hard to get what is desirable and that is a constant story. What has been your experience as a TV executive of dealing with boxing? There have been a lot of positives. The BBC is very committed to amateur boxing and this is going to be very big indeed in Beijing (for the Olympics later this year). The qualifications from the British team have been excellent. In London 2012 one would hope it will be even better. Boxing is a great sport and being involved in the amateur game gives us a very strong foothold and also helps us fulfil our public service commitment. I feel that the combination of amateur boxing coverage and delayed re-runs of the very best of the professional game is good public service. What would you change about boxing? I'd have every fight within a UK time zone! In my old job as Controller of Radio 5Live we had live coverage of the likes of Tyson-Bruno II at 4am and did excellent numbers (rating figures). Because we are multi-platform, radio is a big consideration for fights beyond screening. It's not really my role to tell sports how to change. What do you see in the future for the sport of boxing? I'm cautiously optimistic. Things have swung quite dramatically in the last 12 to 15 months – there was a lot less then. Currently we have radio coverage of pro boxing, TV coverage of the amateurs, TV re-runs of big pro fights and I'll just say again how big a boost for the sport Joe Calzaghe's personality award was. As far as covering professional boxing live in the future, we always keep everything under review. We look for the right opportunities and balance it against other sports. The door is always open.

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