Comments Thread For: PPV Was Born With Holyfield-Foreman: 29 Years Later, Former HBO Boss Reflects

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

After an 18-month stint developing new products for General Foods, Mark Taffet realized more stimulating challenges were desired in his career. Simply put, marketing peas and carrots, and other grocery store essentials, was not worth punching the clock for.
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[ShoulderRoll]

PPVs should go back to being $34.95 a pop. More people would buy them.

Everyone now wants to charge Floyd Mayweather prices for PPV when they haven't earned the star status to do so.

[-Kev-]

PPVs should go back to being $34.95 a pop. More people would buy them.

Everyone now wants to charge Floyd Mayweather prices for PPV when they haven't earned the star status to do so.

True. If US PPV’s were priced the same as UK PPV’s, they’d sell a ton of PPV’s anytime there’s a good main event.

But the new model banks on lower amount of PPV’s sold with high price tag to make up for the lower amount.

It works with Mayweather, who had a high price tag and high sales vs Pacquiao and McGregor but that’s a once in a while type of fighter.

Greed makes these people do that, who ever sets the PPV prices. Why wouldn’t you want your product on more customer’s hands? In this case, a one and done product. You have a price tag of $60, with sales of 150k, or you can potentially get 500k sales at $35. How is that not better? You generate $17.5 million at 500k sales of $35 vs $9 million at 150k of $60 dollar PPV’s.

And let’s say you can only double the sales figure, so you sell 300k at $35...so what, your product was exposed to more customers. More people know about your product, it was a good fight, more people will buy next time.

[_Rexy_]

PPVs should go back to being $34.95 a pop. More people would buy them.

Everyone now wants to charge Floyd Mayweather prices for PPV when they haven't earned the star status to do so.

Adjusted for inflation, that $34.95 becomes $66.25 (not sticking up for the price, just saying)

[ShoulderRoll]

Adjusted for inflation, that $34.95 becomes $66.25 (not sticking up for the price, just saying)

The bareknuckle BKFC pay per views are $39.99

Very reasonable.

Only a true boxing super fight should ever be $75. For Crawford vs Khan the price was $69.99...that is insane. I'm glad it flopped.

[_Rexy_]

The bareknuckle BKFC pay per views are $39.99

Very reasonable.

Only a true boxing super fight should ever be $75. For Crawford vs Khan the price was $69.99...that is insane. I'm glad it flopped.

I think $54.99 would be a good compromise. BK would cost more if people cared lol. I have no idea what a UFC PPV costs, but...yeah


I forgot Crawford/Khan was a PPV. What the **** were they thinking?

[Oldskoolg]

Ppv does need to come down in price I agree. Many of us have no problem paying for it but many don’t. Boxing suffered in the USA because the powers that be made it inaccessible to those from lower income no longer having access to it when it went to cable and then to ppv. Boxers are being overpaid. All promotions are guilty of this. The overpaying leads to a lack of real blockbuster FOTY types. Make these guys work their way up to 7 figure sums rather than paying them 7m for fights against 3rd rate opposition. In the long run, it hurts the sport....and the more boxing comes back to the networks in the USA the better.

[soul_survivor]

Ppv does need to come down in price I agree. Many of us have no problem paying for it but many don’t. Boxing suffered in the USA because the powers that be made it inaccessible to those from lower income no longer having access to it when it went to cable and then to ppv. Boxers are being overpaid. All promotions are guilty of this. The overpaying leads to a lack of real blockbuster FOTY types. Make these guys work their way up to 7 figure sums rather than paying them 7m for fights against 3rd rate opposition. In the long run, it hurts the sport....and the more boxing comes back to the networks in the USA the better.

I agree with this.

The PPV model, which was so financially successful for HBO in the 90s, is what killed HBO boxing in the 2010s (as I said it would in 2015), the reason is primarily because TV, promoters and boxers in America got too greedy and tanked the entire sport.

The same thing is sadly happening in the UK with Sky abandoning pretty much all boxing and boxers in the UK apart from Hearn and AJ.

[Oldskoolg]

I agree with this.

The PPV model, which was so financially successful for HBO in the 90s, is what killed HBO boxing in the 2010s (as I said it would in 2015), the reason is primarily because TV, promoters and boxers in America got too greedy and tanked the entire sport.

The same thing is sadly happening in the UK with Sky abandoning pretty much all boxing and boxers in the UK apart from Hearn and AJ.

I can remember vividly someone said to me in the 90s, “it’s too hard to follow boxing, it’s only on cable and I don’t buy ppv.” That turned out to be the sentiment of the entire problem as you said. Young kids from the hood, the barrio, and steel mill towns and trailer parks no longer grew up watching boxers and therefore didn’t go to boxing gyms themselves. HBO, Showtime, Don King, Bob Arum, the Duvas, etc all share a measure of responsibility because of greed as you said

[paranoidandroid]

this guy is the reason boxing has regressed over the past decades. back when boxing was on network TV it was immensely popular. now nobody cares, except us. there shouldnt be any PPVs. this is why i support DAZN and pirate all PPVs events.