Event providers not offering boxing, wrestling or UFC shows have all but abandoned the pay-per-view industry over the past decade.
In the late 1990s, music, comedy and other entertainment-themed events were as prevalent – and, for the most part, as financially lucrative for cable operators – as all but the biggest ring sports events. But the emergence of YouTube and other alternative distribution platforms offering free comedy-show clips and live concert footage has grounded a category that not too long ago was generating 200,000-plus buys and million-dollar revenue paydays for New Kids On The Block concerts.
Yet the surprising performance of an August PPV comedy concert has given a pulse to the entertainment category. The Aug. 2 Steve Harvey Grand Stand-Up Finale comedy show was touted as the popular comedian/actor/talk show host’s final comedy show performance of his 27-year career.
Given the show’s unexpectedly strong PPV performance, the industry would certainly welcome an encore.
Despite an 11 p.m. premiere on Thursday – a typically poor night for PPV purchasing activity – the show turned in the most successful performance of a non-ring sports event in the last five years and ranks as the most successful “concert-type” event in more than a decade, according to In Demand (which did not reveal specific PPV buy figures.)
It followed a simple formula that works for practically any media event: Harvey, in collaboration with In Demand, provided fresh content that viewers couldn’t get anywhere else, and then marketed the heck out of it.
Unlike typical PPV concert events that occur during the last leg of a performer’s tour, Harvey’s material that was new to most potential cable, satellite and telco PPV users.
Then Harvey himself got the word out to his audience.
In the days prior to the show’s PPV premiere, he encouraged viewers to pre-buy the show through his own website and Facebook page; tweeted his followers about the show; and talked up the event to 7 million listeners on his syndicated morning radio show.
No one can sell a marquee event quite like the performers themselves, as Harvey showed.
He may have also created a marketing blueprint for other popular comedians, singers, magicians and other entertainers looking succeed on PPV. Today (Oct. 15), the Rolling Stones announced it will air one of its four live concerts celebrating the legendary rock group’s 50th anniversary on PPV in December.
Hopefully like Harvey and the Stones, more performers will see that the PPV event category is more than just a tired punch line.
