Pay-per-view content aggregator In Demand’s PPV.com digital service will look to engage boxing fans with a exclusive live chat that will run during its distribution of Saturday’s Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia super lightweight championship PPV event.
The live text chat, hosted by International Boxing Hall of Fame announcer Jim Lampley, allows PPV.com fight purchasers to discuss the PPV event’s in-ring action in real time with Lampley along with boxing journalist Lance Pugmire and Inside Boxing Live podcast hosts Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri.
In Demand senior VP of programming and marketing Mark Boccardi said since Lampley began hosting the chat in 2023, the platform has consistently increased the total number of overall messages and the number of messages per buyer. PPV.com’s most recent fight card, the March 30 Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora event, set record marks in both categories, although Boccardi did not reveal specific numbers.
“We want to have fans chatting and talking about what’s going on in the fights — that’s what differentiates our product and we’re definitely seeing that,” Boccardi said. “So much of that is attributed to having Jim on board … he is still beloved by fans, and he’s been a terrific addition to our team.”
Lampley, who serve as the blow-by-blow announcer of HBO Boxing for 30 years as part of a 50-year sports television career, spoke about his his new role at PPV.com as well as the evolution of boxing on television and its future prospects in an interview with Multichannel News. Here’s an edited transcript of that conversation.
