Following news yesterday that Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez III will be broadcast on HBO pay per view rather than rival Showtime, many wondered what had tipped the balance back in HBO’s favor after they lost out on broadcasting Pacquiao’s May bout with Shane Mosley.
The answer it appears was guaranteed promotion from HBO’s parent company Time Warner, and lots of it. Regarding which channels will be involved in advertising the fight, Arum said to ESPN’s Dan Rafael:
“Being on shows on CNN, to me, is elevating the sport to new levels,”
“To have the fight discussed on programs that intellectual elites watch is good for the brand. Time Warner is also going to pull out all the stops on their sports programs on TNT and TBS.”
Clearly then the fight is going to receive a bigger push than perhaps any since the days of network television broadcasting boxing on a regular basis.
Following their success with Showtime/CBS it also appears that Manny Pacquiao with the help of Bob Arum is set to once more break into new markets and possibly sell pay per views to fans entirely new to the sport.
Perhaps more importantly than merely getting people to watch is keeping them interested in the longer term.
New fans watching Pacquiao vs. Mosley probably won’t have been inspired to start shelling out for pay per views on a regular basis, even those aware that fights as bad as that one in particular aren’t, thankfully, that common.
Marquez stylistically should give Pacquiao problems that his last few opponents have failed to, even if ultimately the weight hampers his performance to some degree.
If the fight can live up to the hype it perhaps moves the sport once step closer to network television instead of subscription channels and pay per views, in other words back into the mainstream.
The real winners then from this Arum engineered bidding war then could turn out to be the fans and the sport itself as well as Arum and Pacquiao’s bank balances.
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An interesting aside will be whether Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather sell more in their respective pay per view offerings in the coming months,
Golden Boy seem to have taken the approach of loading their September 17th event with as many big stars as they can muster, and will feature Erik Morales, Lucas Matthysse and Saul Alvarez in a split bill.
It isn’t clear what kind of promotion if any Time Warner will be contributing in addition to HBO, and without a counter offer on the table there isn’t any guarantee that Mayweather vs. Ortiz will receive any of the extra promotion than Pacquiao vs. Marquez will.
Top Rank thus far haven’t revealed who will be on their card other than exciting brawler Brandon Rios.
Will Mckees, Pitt: “Arum will push for more and more each time now, he has Showtime and HBO them right where he wants them”
