For months colleague John Chavez and myself have made Boxing Confidential our own personal soapboxes to tell anyone reading how poorly boxing is marketed to the masses.
One particular point which I have repeated over and over is how HBO and promoters limit their population of potential pay per viewers by showing 24/7 countdown shows strictly on the premium cable network.
Anyone can figure out that potential consumer pool for a boxing event without HBO access is larger than the number of HBO subscribers and with the explosion of the Internet, the World Wide Web has become a very real marketing platform.
Slowly, but surely, HBO has started to understand that they cannot market the sport of boxing strictly through in-house countdown documentaries and newspaper, television, and radio ads. First came Ring Life, a web-based fighter documentary series fighters made available on HBO and YouTube with the capability for users to embed each episode on their own websites, blogs, or e-mail the link to a friend.
Now, with Manny Pacquiao – Ricky Hatton on the horizon and their own 24/7 series having kicked-off this past Saturday night, HBO has released the first episode on YouTube.
Instead of giving just HBO subscribers the opportunity to watch these well produced episodes which bring you right into the training camp of fighters as they prepare for major boxing events, now anyone with an Internet connection can surf into the episodes and possibly become interested enough to purchase the fight or even, should we even say it, begin to follow boxing regularly.
Good job Ross Fernberg, you are starting to learn.
