As expected the May 2 Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight obliterated all pay-per-view event records, generating 4.4 million buys and more
than $400 million in PPV revenue. While the fighters delivered a lackluster performance throughout the 12-round fight, the event’s remarkable PPV
returns will place it as one of the most successful events in sport’s history.
Here are three takeaways from MayPac’s stellar PPV performance:
Boxing is still the PPV Champion: The sweet science may not dominate the sports pages or weekly television schedules like it did in the 50s through
70s, but when it comes to big events no other event genre can touch the sweet science in terms of drawing eyeballs and dollars. The top 10 most watched PPV events of all time are boxing
matches, with the top three having occurred within the last decade and two of the top three in the last two years. It may take a while for another fight to capture the public’s interest on the
level of Mayweather-Pacquiao, but it’s a good bet that no music, pro wrestling or mixed martial arts will challenge the record in the meantime.
The industry can market big events: In a crowded entertainment environment, cable operators, telcos, satellite providers and networks proved that they can still reach a significant amount of
consumers with a marketing message that can lure viewers to traditional cable. Rabid boxing fans and casual sports fans alike couldn’t turn on their television sets or scan the Web without seeing some form of promotion for the fight, especially in the last two weeks of the event.
Live Sports Rules: Mayweather-Pacquiao continued an impressive run of major sporting events drawing record-breaking numbers on cable in 2015, joining ESPN’s January Ohio State-Oregon telecast as the most watched cable program of all time and TBS’ Kentucky-Wisconsin April Final Four telecast as the highest rated college basketball game ever. Live sports remains one of the few DVR and OTT-proof content on cable.
