Last week, Saudi Arabian sportwashing pointman and boxing sugar daddy Turki Alalshikh shook up the online boxing world with his declaration that he would be ending the pay-per-view model for all his shows, starting in November.
“Great meeting with my brother Shay, CEO of DAZN,” Turki tweeted. “We have big vision to grow boxing and decide: No More Pay-Per-View. Starting with our @ringmagazine show in November, all Riyadh Season & The Ring events will be free to DAZN subscribers. The PPV model has damaged boxing, and we will no longer support it. We are with the fight fans.”
Weary and pocket-picked fans rejoiced. Turki employees and shills declared this to be a “game changer.”
No more pay-per-view would mean less cost to fans and, ostensibly, a greater likelihood of expansion into the mainstream. Sure, people would still need a subscription to DAZN to see the Turki fights, but details be damned– PPV was DEAD.
The timing of the Saudi’s proclamation is interesting to point out. It happened right in the heat of Manny Pacquiao-Mario Barrios fight week, which could be viewed as either a direct effort to steal buzz away from the PBC event or as an act of impetuous stage-stealing from a guy aching for the spotlight and/or aching from poor pay-view-sales of his own event days earlier.
Later that evening, Turki and two of his gobblers– Ring Magazine “Insider” Mike Coppinger and Turki’s Ring Magazine CEO “Vermoxine”
The first point of business on said video was to emphasize the new reality of this new boxing world.
“Pay-per-views are going to be free, available to DAZN subscribers,” Coppinger mush-mouthed.
Then, Turki took the lead to explain how these changes would work:
“Maybe we split the cards in three division– A+, B, and C. C we’ll charge it with DAZN, with little money. The B, middle money. And the A with lump sum, one time from DAZN and that’s it. This will make DAZN have fan base in America and UK and around the world between 5 to 20 million…and this is good for both of us…and good for business..and good for boxing.”
Huh? Well, it probably makes more sense in Arabic.
But, still, PPV was DEAD!
The joy lasted about twelve hours.
The following day, DAZN issued a statement introducing “The Ring Pass”– a secondary subscription (at a still-to-be-determined price) boxing fans would need in order to access all of the “free” pay-per-view shows:
“Now we’re entering the next phase.
As reported by several outlets, we hope to launch in the future – The Ring Pass– a premium global monthly global subscription backed by DAZN, Riyadh Season, and The Ring…with the goal of making boxing easier to access, simpler to follow, and better value for fans who want everything.”
Well, technically, Turki wasn’t lying when he said that he was killing off PPV. The model will now be less pay-per-view and more pay-per-everything-upfront, with anything good locked behind two impenetrable paywalls now.
If one cared to dive in, though, the logic didn’t really line up.
Like, for instance, how is adding an additional paywall a benefit to fans and how is this idea substantially different than the PPV
One would be smart to assume that this restructuring of the business model has more to do with the bossmen securing their payoffs upfront than saving fans money.
Unless the Ring Pass subscription fee is low enough to be considered a negligible loss to fans, why would anyone want to take the risk of purchasing events upfront in a sport where fights drop off, fighters drop out, and cards can be fluid right up until fight night? If there are two events in one month and one gets scrapped or altered, will there be a mechanism for a refund…or will subscribers just have to swallow the loss? DAZN, historically, has not been very responsive to customer service issues.
And that leads to the next hiccup in logic.
How is this plan going to bring subscribers into a service they weren’t subscribing to before? Being forced to purchase everything upfront, in one large chunk, is not the selling point some of these people appear to believe it is. It’s an especially dubious sales ploy from two fairly untrustworthy players in the game– DAZN, which had previously sold itself as the killers of the PPV business model before full-heartedly embracing an “everything on PPV” strategy, and Turki, whose promise to lower pay-per-view prices to $20 for the sake of the fans lasted about 45 days.
At the end of the day, Turki’s big announcement offers no real, positive changes for fans at all and no help in bringing about a self-sustaining business model NOT reliant on a murderous monarchy’s willingness to operate deeply in the red. It’s more of the same gouging of the fans, repackaged in the hope that boxing fans will be too stupid to know any better.
Epilogue (Coppinger: A Boy And His Turki)
Ring “Insider” Mike Coppinger, showing his elation at being “inside,” peppered all of his “questions” to Turki Alalshikh during the 30-minute YouTube “No More PPV” infomercial last week with supreme positivity:
Copp: you’re a fan first, that’s why you make these great cards…
Copp: And we look at all the great cards already that you and Riyadh Season delivered…a big win for the sport…
Copp: If you build it, they will come…
Copp: Yeah, I think what is great is…The development in boxing…has really waned. This should fill that, right?
Copp: and, yeah, that’s one of my favorite things that you’re doing right now…
Copp: Alcatraz is going to be crazy…I know we’re going to have a crazy main event for that one, no question. I’m sure it’s already in your head…but, I think what’s great is…
Copp: It was an amazing cards on Saturday…
Copp: We can’t forget…You made the big announcement today that all the PPVs, there won’t be any more going forward on the DAZN…but Septemner, it’s already going to start with Netflix. Canelo and Crawford…this could be the most viewed fight of this century…you’re gonna have a great undercard…
Copp: You really brought back the heavyweight division…
As I’ve said before, some people really, really love the guy signing their paychecks.
Epilogue II (Inglourious Basturk)
In keeping with a reputation that allegedly involves massive temper tantrums, the jailing and torture of critics, and, reportedly, a big, heavy-handed role in a royal Saudi coup, Turki Alalshikh put out a hefty dose of man-child pettiness Saturday night over social media.
Following Tim Tszyu’s RTD loss to Sebastian Fundora on the Manny Pacquiao-Mario Barrios undercard Saturday night, the Saudi representative, who’s had past disagreements with the second-generation star, blasted a nasty, self-revelatory Tweet.
“I said to you from the beginning, Tim Tszyu does not deserve to be on a Riyadh Season or Ring Magazine card. He can be useful
Turki deleted the post as fan backlash started to build to the disrespectful dismissal from the man who has, increasingly, carried himself as if he were the king of boxing.
Two days earlier, in an interview with Tha Boxing Voice podcast, he would ironically enough highlight the importance of mutual respect between fighters and himself in explaining his decision to sever ties with Floyd Schofield Jr. and Teofimo Lopez.
“We are different,” he asserted, comparing his operation to that of other promoters. “We respect you. You respect us.”
Apparently, like in most monarchies, respect doesn’t necessarily flow both ways between monarch and subjects.
Consider this a word of warning and a deep look into the heart, mind, and soul of someone who aspires to own the sport outright and bend it to his will. When the day comes and he can openly be his actual self without fear of backlash, when this grooming process is over, how tight will the leash be around those fighters fully dependent on him to make a living? How little patience will there be for anything that displeases him or for anything he perceives as insolence, specifically coming from the fighters who he only seems to respect when they behave as willful and subservient pawns in his game? Turki’s own personal history tells us that he has zero tolerance for not getting his way and that he’s more than willing to lie and strongarm his way into getting what he wants.
Saturday’s childish quick-twitch burial of Tszyu during a middle-of-the-night moment of spiteful elation should be an eye-opener for those signing up to work for the man and for those counting on him to be a benevolent king of boxing.
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Paul Magno has over forty 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 on Yahoo Sports, Fox Sports, Fight Hype, Max Boxing, Boxing.com, Inside Fights, The Queensberry Rules, Overtime Heroics, Bleacher Report, and Premier Boxing Champions. He is currently the owner and managing editor or The Boxing Tribune. You can follow his Twitter/X account, @boxing_tribune, for breaking boxing news, analysis, and sometimes NSFW commentary. For Advertising, Inquiries, etc., send him an email here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com
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