Boxing and TV - Part Three - Sky by Ian McNeilly Apr 23rd 2008

In the third part of his series on television coverage of boxing, BBN's Editor Ian McNeilly looks at Sky Sports and interviews their top executive, Vic Wakeling. Sky Sports It is no exaggeration to say that Sky Sports has completely changed sports television broadcasting since their arrival in 1990. Their reach and ambition was probably best reflected in football when their promise of huge payments encouraged clubs to break away from the Football League and form the Premier League in 1992/93, for which Sky secured exclusive live rights. For the first time ever, terrestrial viewers were denied access to what is regarded as the nation's game. This meant that far fewer people watched the sport on television. The same story happened with boxing. Sky were – and are – brilliant at what they do but for a long time their tiny audience share meant that boxing drifted out of the public's conscience in the mid-90s. The channel was doing a great job in developing the likes of Lennox Lewis and Naseem Hamed followed by Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton but precious few non-subscribers got to see them. This had a knock-on effect that the sport's coverage in newspapers declined. Sky put a lot of investment in boxing but decided to change tack in 2004. They previously had relatively long-term deals with Frank Warren and Sports Network but felt this was no longer the way forward. The falling through of the proposed Ricky Hatton-Kelson Pinto fight in April 2004 (the opponent was replaced by Dennis Holbaek Pedersen at short notice) coupled with the perception among fight fans, noted by Sky, that Hatton had rested on the WBU belt for too long were instrumental in this. Ironic then that after Sports Network finally delivered the huge fight the public had been asking for – Hatton v Kostya Tzsyu – that Ricky left the promotional outfit. Sky wanted to deal on a fight by fight basis – make the fights and if they are good enough, they would buy them. Warren saw what he thought was a better deal at ITV and went for it. Sky now has a policy of not showcasing ‘lesser' world titles of any kind – unless the fight itself is worthy and makes the belt irrelevant anyway. No longer will they broadcast a fight simply because there is a supposed ‘world' belt attached. Instead, they've responded to boxing fans' wishes by focusing on the more established British, Commonwealth and European titles for their domestic coverage and bought in what they see as meaningful fights from America to show either live or by delay. As a Sky insider told me, “The Lonsdale belt had lost its profile but we wanted to go back to grass roots – people trust the belt. We still want to have fights that have all the glitz and glamour because that's important and we have these as part of a deal with HBO. There was a credibility issue with some of the belts we used to show. Just because they were supposed to be a world title, they weren't and everyone knew that. Boxing fans know their stuff. We show as much boxing as we used to and have invested just as much but are now working with different promoters and for proper titles. It's important to us that we show boxing at every level from the small halls like Bethnal Green to the big arenas in the US.” Sky Box Office has done very well of late too. This is the package given over to super-fights whereby those who want to see it have to pay an extra premium, typically £14.95. The broadcaster was astonished by the take up for Hatton-Mayweather. As the Sky source said, “It was an event before it was a fight. No man wanted to wake up and see his friends the next day having not seen it.” Facts and figures Sky is reluctant to give out viewing figures. This should not be a great surprise as it might not make them look very good in comparison to their terrestrial rivals, when taken on face value. Viewing figures for December 2007 showed that the audience share for BBC1 and 2 was 28.6%. ITV was 17.2%. Sky's was 8.1%. You can see how important sport is to the broadcaster as more than a third of their viewers come from these channels – 3.3%. To put things in perspective, the biggest PPV event they've ever sold, Mayweather v Hatton, at 1.25 million had a quarter of the audience Audley Harrison had for his professional debut. But when you then realize that everyone is paying fifteen quid for the privilege, that makes you realize it was an incredible success. Sky also makes the very valid point that the comparisons aren't fair in that when people shell out for a big PPV event, it is common practice for people to group together round a friend's house or watch it in a pub or big screen environment. So the real amount of viewers is many times more the bare statistic. Sky Sports live PPV highlights: Frank Bruno v Mike Tyson, 16th March 1996 – 670,000 buys Lennox Lewis v Mike Tyson, 8th June 2002 – 750,000 buys Floyd Mayweather v Ricky Hatton, 8th December 2007 – 1.25 million buys Vic Wakeling, Managing Director of Sky Sports What determines whether any sport or sporting event gets television coverage? In the case of Sky Sports, with five dedicated sports channels, we have always aimed to offer a wide variety of all sport, perhaps a hundred different sports last year, and we have made a bigger, long-term investment in boxing in our 17 year-history than any other broadcaster over that same period. Boxing appeals because there is a hard-core of support for the sport, plus the occasional fight, or fighter, who transcends the sport and attracts huge viewing audiences. We have seen it over the years with Frank Bruno, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Steve Collins, Prince Naseem and others. The best recent example is Ricky Hatton, an amazing record-breaking response to his fight with Mayweather. What are the positives of boxing in comparison with other sports? It is unfair to compare with other sports, and boxing doesn't need to. At every level you have to admire the courage, the levels of fitness and the talent we see week in, and week out on Friday Fight Night. What are the negatives of boxing in comparison with other sports? At world level, the obvious ones - too many world champions at the same weight. How expensive is boxing in comparison to other sports? Again, it's hard to compare with other sports, and there are so many levels. At the top, you have Ricky Hatton. His British television earnings for the Mayweather fight were probably double anything earned by a British fighter in the past - including the heavyweights. I don't know what he got from the US end of it, but he deserves every penny and we at Sky are delighted to see fighters earning so well. Our Friday Fight Night shows do very good business on a regular basis - better than we used to do on a Saturday night - so we consider we are getting good value in return for our investment. What has been your experience as a TV executive of dealing with boxing? I've lost count of the number of promoters I've dealt with, at home and abroad, over the years - but it's a fascinating business. In the UK, we have good relationships now with Frank Maloney, Barry Hearn and Mick Hennessey - and we enjoyed a long, successful relationship with Frank Warren. Frank, clearly, is at the top of his business. Barry these days, well, we spend just as much time talking about the amazing growth of darts - and the many other sports he's involved in. It's fun - most of the time. What would you change about boxing? Sorry to be so predictable and obvious - fewer world bodies. It will never come down to one, but is two or three too much to hope for? What do you see in the future for the sport of boxing? It's a cyclical business - having a great run right now - but we'll hit a bad patch at some stage in the future. And then, there'll be a new breed breaking through again - new names to get us excited and hopeful. That's what it's all about - good fighters, properly trained and managed, and getting their opportunities. Television can help in achieving that.

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Boxing on TV Apr 24th 2008, 07:42:10 by dcoyne Thoroughly enjoyed your series of articles, nice to see other Boxing Promotion Companies negociating with the ITV network, which is the only way to build a new interest amongst the masses at no cost. I believe the BBC's coverage of the Olympics, especially GB's Boxing team will only cement the growing advance of this great sport