Boxing and TV - Part One - ITV by Ian McNeilly Apr 8th 2008

As fans, if we're lucky enough, we have memories of fights from ringside which will be alive as long as we are. Second best to the live atmosphere is watching on the television, whether it be in a crowded boozer, round your mate's house with a crowd of pals or on your own at home, trying your best not to wake the missus who has yet again come a poor second place to your love of the sport (sexist, I know). Most of us owe our early boxing memories to television coverage. The first fight I vaguely remember watching was Ali-Spinks I, my father incredulous at what was unfolding in front of him. My daughter, aged four days, watched Matt Skelton-Danny Williams II with me. Perhaps that's why she still cries all the time. Let's face it, most of us are dependent on television coverage for our boxing viewing. We, and boxing, needs television. Without television coverage, most of us don't get to see fights. And without television money, the big fights just don't get made. But does television need boxing? Only the BBC has a duty to try and serve the public by way of broadcasting minority interests and, despite what we think, that is what boxing has allowed itself to become with its ridiculous political in-fighting, the best routinely not fighting the best and mediocrities upheld as paragons of pugilism via rotten belts. But, showing its resilience after taking a momentary knee, boxing is back swinging on both terrestrial and digital platforms. For the first time, BritishBoxing.net profiles the big players in British television and asks the top men what they really think about our sport. ITV Fight fans of a certain age can often find themselves humming the tune to Big Fight Live from the 90s, just before Sky took most of the boxers away from the terrestrial screen. There were some absolute crackers shown on the channel both live and by delay. The force of Nigel Benn blew through the channel and a rivalry was created with Chris Eubank which probably couldn't have been created if they were tucked away on satellite. The power of terrestrial television was writ large at the Athens Olympics of 2004. Amir Khan was a new superstar and the BBC's coverage of his silver medal run encouraged ITV to dip their toe back into boxing's murky waters. They returned to live boxing coverage with Khan's final amateur bout against his conqueror Mario Kindelan. ITV subsequently signed an exclusive deal with Frank Warren's Sports Network (after the promoter parted company with Sky Sports) and the broadcaster began to give his stable great exposure via a mix of prime time coverage on ITV4 and ITV1. ITV showcased some great boxing (Joe Calzaghe v Jeff Lacy) and some garbage (Enzo Maccarinelli v Bobby Gunn). The former was on in the early hours of the morning to suit American television and get the important dollar which has the knock on effect of lower British viewing ratings and advertising becoming more difficult to sell. The latter mismatch – WBO sanctioned or not, we all knew it beforehand - received a lot of deserved criticism. ITV and BBC share the concern that whilst they do a great deal to promote the boxers on the way up, they can't afford the really big fights when they are made. And as for ITV, the mainly awful domestic heavyweight unmerry-go-round featuring Harrison, Williams, Skelton and Sprott can't have helped. Believe it or not, the biggest ratings success ITV has had since returning to boxing was Danny Williams' split decision win over Audley Harrison which was surely enough to convince most right-minded non-boxing fans not to bother watching the sport again. By the time the fight came alive in the last three rounds, most of the 15,000 in attendance at London's ExCel Arena – never mind the millions watching at home – were all chanting ‘what a load of rubbish'. The network decided to let big name Sports Network fighters go whilst keeping the young man they see as the jewel in the crown – Amir Khan. This contract ends in July and ITV will be considering their options. (Setanta now say they have an 'exclusive' deal with Sports Network until December, 2010 - though their press release doesn't mention Amir Khan.) A recent article in the Guardian headlined ‘Boxing faces knockout by ITV' suggested they were about to throw in the towel for the reasons stated above and this was followed by their ‘letting go' of long-time servant and boxing front man Jim Rosenthal. But ITV's Director of News and Sport, Mark Sharman says he has an open mind about the future and the fact that they agreed to give live coverage to Hennessy Sports-promoted Carl Froch in his world title eliminator against Denis Inkin is a positive sign that they want to continue. Facts and figures ITV's return to live boxing was Khan v Kindelan which peaked at 6.3 million viewers, with the whole show averaging 4.5 million. Khan's ratings since then have varied from around 2.5 million (peak) on ITV1 to a peak of 6.7 million for his fight against Graham Earl. The figures often vary depending on how long he is in the ring for. ITV's biggest audience since returning to boxing was for the Audley Harrison v Danny Williams fight on 10th December 2005, which peaked at 8 million with the entire show averaging 6 million. An ITV source said: “Although undoubtedly the best fight we've shown since returning to the ring was the Calzaghe v Lacy fight in 2006, it had to be broadcast in the early hours of the morning for the American audience. Although the show peaked at 2.4 million, this actually came during the earlier Maccarinelli fight (points win over Mark Hobson) which was shown around midnight. The Calzaghe v Lacy fight peaked at around 1.5 million live. A subsequent repeat the following day attracted a further 1.8m peak.” Mark Sharman, ITV's Director of News and Sport What determines whether any sport or sporting event gets television coverage? ITV1 is a commercial channel of huge scale and size, showing programmes like Coronation Street, Dancing on Ice and Britain's Got Talent. For a sport to force its way on to the channel it has to have the scale and size to match. Is volleyball going to be shown on ITV1? No. But top level boxing, Champions' League football, Formula 1, Euro 2008 are because they have the scale and size. As we are a commercial channel it's about how many people are watching. It's about ratings. Public interest plays a part but only in terms that if the public are interested enough, they'll watch it. We aren't there to serve sport. We aren't like the BBC which has a public serve broadcast remit. When Grandstand used to be on it showed things like badminton and we don't. We need a good return. What are the positives of boxing in comparison with other sports? On a big night it is the most fantastic event. It has all the drama, it's gutsy. It works right across all emotions. It's two athletes competing against each other. It's gladiatorial and it works. That's why they make ‘Rocky' films. What are the negatives of boxing in comparison with other sports? With other sports you know when kick off is and you know how long it's going to last. Boxing is never to a set fixture list and it all depends on promoters bringing fights together. It's very unpredictable. Fights can be often called off, if a fighter gets injured, for example. As I've said, you don't know how long it will run. If I sell six advertising break packages for an Amir Khan fight night and he knocks the guy out in the first round…it's a problem. How expensive is boxing in comparison to other sports? It's about the same as others in terms of equipment. You might need a more complicated lighting set up as it's inside. It's not the cost of coverage but the cost of rights. That depends on the bill and who's fighting. I can tell you that the likes of Khan, Calzaghe and Hatton don't come cheap. What has been your experience as a TV executive of dealing with boxing? (Almost drops the phone laughing) How can I put this? It's always ‘interesting'! Let's just say that I've become very familiar with the phrase ‘That's boxing'! It appears to be the answer to a myriad of problems. What would you change about boxing? In an ideal world there should be less world bodies, less world championships. The world bodies should be stronger in who fights who. Most sports are easy to deal with in that you go to the one governing body – UEFA, the FA and even the Boat Race – we don't have to go to Oxford and Cambridge. Not so with boxing. It's dealing with promoters and that's a different agenda altogether. World championships should mean more and governing bodies should take more of a lead. What do you see in the future for the sport of boxing? Boxing has had a great time of late. ITV brought it back over three years ago. It's not just us (who have made it successful) but we have helped put it in the public eye. The problem is that we help build up these fighters and when it comes to the really massive fights it gets very difficult for us to pay for them. You're likely to need American money so the start time is in the early hours of the morning for British viewers. This means it's more difficult for us to recoup the money we've spent.

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