Pacquiao vs. Marquez: Boxing Needs to Ditch Pay-Per-View Approach

Boxing needs to move to free television if it wants to save itself from extinction. This includes ditching contracts for Pay-Per-View fights and HBO and Showtime.

Boxing needs to generate new fans, interest and buzz. They aren't going to do this by making their fights inaccessible to casual fans.

Case Against Pay-Per-View

Only people that are already supremely interested in boxing are going to regularly fork over the $50 to 60 required to view a bout. This creates an environment that makes boxing an afterthought for the typical sports fan.

Ordering the PPV package never crosses the mind of most people. This limits the hype leading up to a fight. People are less likely to talk about a fight that they know they will not watch.

This kills word of mouth advertising for the sport.

Whereas, if these fights were on regular TV a wider audience would plan on watching a fight. This would lead to them talking about the fight and their plans to watch it with their friends, which would lead to more people tuning in.

This would showcase the sport to a broader audience, and make boxing, once again, prominent in the sporting world landscape.

What Boxing Should Do

Boxing needs to sell television rights to the big networks i.e. ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.

While the contracts may not be quite as big as the ones they currently receive from the pay networks, in time the revenues would grow.

They would grow because there would be a bigger audience and more demand to see the fight. This would increase the overall value of the sport.

It would also generate a much needed buzz surrounding the sport.

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