THERE appears to pockets of resentment towards promoters Matchroom and Sky Sports for making their December 12 show – headlined by a vacant British heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte – available only on a pay-per-view basis. But a brief look at the viewing figures for boxing on ‘regular’ Sky Sports explains exactly why this has been judged a good business move.
Of Joshua’s four fights in 2015 so far, one was on the stacked Rule Britannia Sky Sports Box Office (PPV) card in May, while the other three generated impressive viewing figures. His April match with Jason Gavern drew 139,000, while the May 9 match versus Raphael Zumbano Love reached 124,000. Most notably, and arguably the catalyst for Joshua’s elevation to ppv main-eventer status, was the startling 336,000 who tuned in to watch him destroy Gary Cornish, despite his opponent being considered by most observers as a huge underdog, and the lack of big names on the undercard. This was ‘regular’ Sky Sports’ biggest boxing audience of the year and more than triple the amount of people who watched the superb world title double-header of Darleys Perez-Anthony Crolla and Scott Quigg-Kiko Martinez.
That Joshua winning the vacant Commonwealth title against Cornish can draw a much larger audience than two world title contests is telling, and the fact that his bout with Whyte appears to involve a genuine grudge, a more potent threat than his last foe and a vastly superior undercard, should see the December 12 show make a comfortable profit on PPV.
Click NEXT (below) to see notable ‘regular’ Sky Sports boxing figures from 2015.
(Viewing figures; Date; Channel if not Sky Sports 1; Nominal main event)
133k Feb 21 SS3 Arthur Abraham-Paul Smith
52k Mar 7 (w/e Mar 8) Tommy Coyle-Martin Gethin (Campbell)
139k Apr 4 SS2 Anthony Joshua-Jason Gavern
65k Apr 11 SS2 Josh Warrington-Dennis Tubieron
124k May 9 SS2 Anthony Joshua-Raphael Zumbano Love
243 May 23 James DeGale-Andre Dirrell
34k June 21 Andre Ward-Paul Smith
82k June 26 Callum Smith-Christophe Rebrasse (Fielding)
108k July 18 Anthony Crolla-Darleys Perez (Quigg-Martinez)
210k Aug 1 Luke Campbell-Tommy Coyle
336k Sep 12 Anthony Joshua-Gary Cornish
104k Oct 24 Chris Eubank Jnr-Tony Jeter
184k Nov 7 Callum Smith-Rocky Fielding
246k Nov 21 Darleys Perez-Anthony Crolla II
(Figures from BARB)
