Showtime Sports, a prolific distributor of championship boxing and sports documentary programming for more than 37 years, will cease operations at year-end.
Showtime parent Paramount Global said in a statement that it has made the “difficult decision” not to move forward with boxing and other content produced by the Showtime division. Showtime Sports has distributed nearly 750 boxing events since its inception in 1986, including an industry-high five pay-per-view events in 2023.
Showtime Sports' November 25 David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade fight will go on as scheduled, according to Paramount.
“As we evolve our strategy to more efficiently allocate resources and align our content offering across the business, we've made the difficult decision not to move forward with boxing and other content produced by the Showtime sports team,” said Paramount officials. “Showtime will continue to air and support the remaining 2023 boxing slate and honor obligations through the end of the year. We want to express our deepest gratitude to our employees who have contributed to this award-winning sports programming over multiple decades."
Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza said in a statement that the company’s decision was not based on the division’s performance. “The company’s decision is not a reflection of the work we have done in recent years, nor of our long and proud history,” Espinoza said. “It is not an indictment on the value we have delivered to this network for 37 years, nor, in particular, in 2023. Unfortunately, in a rapidly evolving media marketplace, the company has had to make difficult choices allocating resources, resetting priorities and reshaping its content offering.”
Showtime’s decision to step out of the boxing ring follows a similar move by HBO in 2018 after 45 years of televising live boxing matches. The two premium services helped establish the pay-per-view boxing business in the 1990s, often battling each other for the rights to the biggest fights.
Overall, Showtime has distributed more than 2,000 live fights on the service and through PPV. The company’s 2015 Manny Pacquaio-Floyd Mayweather fight remains the biggest PPV event in history with 4.6 million PPV buys, while its 2016 Mayweather-Conor McGregor bout stands as the second-biggest PPV event with 4.3 million PPV buys.
Showtime Sports has also garnered 77 Sports Emmy Awards nominations and 17 Sports Emmy Awards.
