Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions [PBC] company has signed a multi-year deal with Amazone Prime Video, but this move might be a one for the fans.
The PBC press release states that Amazon Prime will be “home to PBC PPV events,” which suggests that fans MUST pay to watch fights on this platform rather than seeing them as part of their regular subscription.
If Amazon Prime doesn’t provide the budget for PBC’s events, more fights will be on PPV.
“Amazon is paying ZERO for anything,” said Rick Glaser about PBC’s events that will be on their platform.
“Haymon has to fund those events; there’s no money from Amazon, only a Platform, distribution, & marketing. We’ll see how many actually happen. Funding from investors for Haymon will be key. You’ll see, there’s no money; the fighters are starting to defect.”
Prime Video focusing on the PPV model for Premier Boxing Champions events will limit fans watching the fights, as they won’t want to pay. Moreover, how can the sport grow if fans don’t get a chance to see fighters as part of their regular subscription? If fans must pay to see even regular contenders fight every time, it will impact the sport’s growth.
Will Al Haymon be willing to put up tons of his company’s own money for events that could hemorrhage money, particularly the ones that fans didn’t ask for and had little interest in seeing, like the David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade one
Fans wouldn’t mind paying if there were meaningful fights like Gervonta Davis vs. Devin Haney or Terence Crawford vs. Canelo Alvarez. Will we see those fights? Probably not.
Amazone Prime has over 200 million subscribers and reaches a lot of people, but these questions:
- Are Amazon Prime subscribers boxing fans? It’s doubtful that many subscribers care about the sport, as they subscribe to Amazon to purchase products, receive free deliveries, and watch videos. These subscribers have no interest in watching the sport, and there could be even less visibility for Haymon’s events than at Showtime. For example, the David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade PPV event last November is rumored to have done only 60K buys on Showtime. See what I mean? I hate to drizzle on PBC’s parade, but this could be an absolute train wreck for them to move to Amazon and a bad one for fans if they have to pay to watch EVERYTHING instead of occasional big fights.
- Will the PBC events be advertised to ALL Amazon Prime subscribers? It won’t work if there is little to no advertising to Amazon Prime subscribers. If they have to sift through the Amazon site to trip over the advertisements for the PBC events, it won’t be good for boxing fans and not for the fighters signed with Haymon’s company.
If platforms like Showtime & Fox were having problems attracting viewers for boxing fans, what makes you think Amazon Prime will be any more successful at it? This could be a race to the bottom for the sport.