The Boxing Tribune

Boxing's Independent Media

  • Home
  • News
  • Videos
  • Best Of
  • Staff
  • Advertise With Us
  • Write for Us

Kovalev TV Ratings “Victory” Pure Bullshit Spin

April 2, 2014 by Paul Magno 15 Comments

49
SHARES
ShareTweet

On Tuesday, TV ratings for last Saturday’s HBO Boxing After Dark telecast were released to “friendly” media sources and then filtered through the hands of the second tier roster of useful media idiots.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the main event of Sergey Kovalev vs. Cedric Agnew was reported to have “peaked at 1,048,000 viewers.” sergey-kovalev2

It was a stat lauded as “good” and “surprisingly good” by many a boxing “expert.” Take into consideration, though, that most of these guys would describe anal warts as “good” if issued a pro-anal warts press release.

Managing Editor of Boxingscene, Jake Donovan, hailed the ratings performance, insisting that “Sergey Kovalev came up big in his debut as an HBO main event fighter…”

To put things into perspective, though, Kovalev-Agnew drew fewer viewers than HBO’s 2013 bouts: Sakio Bika vs. Nikola Sjekloca, Terence Crawford vs. Alejandro Sanabria, and Terence Crawford vs. Andrey Klimov.

Obviously, HBO’s plans for the hard-punching and compelling Kovalev don’t involve him fighting to overcome Sakio Bika and Terence Crawford on the Nielsen Ratings chart.

To be fair, Kovalev was burdened with an unknown opponent in Agnew and the fairly uninteresting undercard lead-in of Thomas Dulorme vs. Karim Mayfield. But, still, a star draws and Kovalev did not generate any interest above and beyond the usual million or so that tune in for every bout on HBO.

Most likely, Kovalev could’ve kicked his spit bucket around the ring while playing Plants vs. Zombies on his phone and still generate similar numbers. At this point, there’s a built-in base of about a million fans no matter what.

Ratings talk in boxing is a fairly new distraction and one which, under the current business structure of boxing on TV, makes little to no sense since the game is now about subscriptions, not actual live viewers.

Numbers will show that just about every boxing broadcast and every bout on HBO and Showtime will bring in anywhere from 1 million to 1.4 million viewers (or about 3.4% to 6% of all available premium channel subscribers). These are consistent numbers that have held up for the last several years.

A recent uptick in boxing ratings matches the recent uptick in premium cable subscriptions. This means that the sport’s viewership numbers, at least on premium cable, have held absolutely steady throughout recent years and through all sorts of promoter vs. promoter/network vs. network drama.

This is not good for boxing. It’s indicative of the fact that boxing’s promoters are not really promoting and that boxing’s television hosts are content with preaching to the choir instead of trying to bring new viewers to the sport. It seems that nobody, really, is doing much to bring in new fans.

The status quo is fine for those in power right now. Why take on the tough fight of expanding the base, when there’s enough money to be had in merely selling to the already sold? It’s not like anyone is going to mention, or even notice, your lack of vision.

Kovalev’s ratings “win” shows why the status quo in boxing is so hard to ditch.

Everybody in power knows that all you need to do to cover your ass is come up with the right spin and issue the right press release. From there, the lapdog media does the rest.

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for exclusives and other bonus material from Boxing’s Independent Media.

Paul Magno on Email
Paul Magno
Paul Magno
Paul Magno has over thirty-five years of experience in and around the sport of boxing and has had his hand in everything, from officiating to training. As a writer, his work has appeared in Yahoo Sports, Fox Sports, Inside Fights, The Boxing Tribune, Fight Hype, Man Cave Magazine, Bleacher Report, and The Queensberry Rules.

Filed Under: Featured, Opinion Tagged With: Boxing TV Ratings, Cedric Agnew, HBO, Sergey Kovalev

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Keep Independent Boxing Media Alive

Best of The Boxing Tribune

The Wild, Wild World of Zeferino Jackson; Magno’s Monday Rant

The Wild, Wild World of Zeferino Jackson; Magno’s Monday Rant

In Defense of Rubio’s “Disgrace” Against Golovkin

In Defense of Rubio’s “Disgrace” Against Golovkin

The Devil and Mr. Gary Russell Jr; Magno’s Monday Rant

The Devil and Mr. Gary Russell Jr; Magno’s Monday Rant

Augustus and Everything After; Magno’s Monday Rant

Augustus and Everything After; Magno’s Monday Rant

No One Here Gets Out Alive (Who Really Killed Frankie Leal?)

No One Here Gets Out Alive (Who Really Killed Frankie Leal?)

More of The Boxing Tribune's Best

Follow Us

Facebooktwitteryoutube

Alexa Traffic Rank

Sportsbook odds for all Boxing matches

Search

Recent

  • Deus Ex Machina: AI Boxing Writer Offers Help to Sucky Human Boxing Writers
  • The Truth About “Boo Boo” Andrade
  • Benavidez and Andrade Talk of War, Assure Victory en Route to Canelo Fight
  • Ryan Garcia and Shakur Stevenson Go To War
  • Goodnight World: A Shakur Stevenson Bedtime Story