Bob Arum has an idea that fans would like when boxing resumes: lower the cost of pay-per-view.
Arum, speaking to Chris Mannix on his Sports Illustrated podcast, used the U.K. as a model. Fight cards are less expense in Great Britain and do a lot bigger numbers than the U.S. per capita.
The promoter suggested a price of $40, half of what it cost to watch the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder rematch in February.
Arum also said the lower price would reduce piracy, which he believes would help offset the reduction in price.
“[There are] 50 or 60 million people in the U.K.,” he said. “We have 350 million people in the United States. In the U.K., they do on a big fight over a million pay-per-view [buys], particularly if it’s, you know, prime time in the U.K. And one of the reasons for their success is they charge appropriate prices for the pay-per-view.
“In other words, the pay-per-view goes for 20 or 25 [British] pounds, of which the government takes 20 percent in the VAT. So, people can pretty well afford that. In the United States, where we charge 80 or more dollars for a pay-per-view, people can’t afford that unless they’re gonna have big crowds in the house, chipping in.
“And because of the high price, they look for ways to watch the fight without paying, like streams and everything. Which, you know, the danger there is, other than breaking the law, which they probably won’t get caught, is that these streams get [shut] down and they miss seeing the fight.
“So, if we … go back to charging $40, I think you will see a tremendous increase in the number of homes that will buy it.”
The fight between Fury, who Arum co-promotes, and Wilder reportedly generated as many as 800,000 pay-per-view buys in the U.S., which was disappointing given the immense amount of hype beforehand.
At the same time, the fight did relatively well in terms of streaming on ESPN+ and the Fox Sports app, Arum told Mannix.
“What we saw is because so many people in America have cord cut, that DirecTV and Dish [Network] have really shrunk,” Arum said. “And their customers were big buyers. So, that universe has shrunk. The cable universe has shrunk because people have cut the cord.
“And now, I was happy to see in the [Fury-Wilder rematch] that ESPN+ did 250,000 buys on their platform. And Fox did about 50[000] or 60,000 on their platform. So, I think as you’ll get more people into the digital platforms, you’re gonna see an increase in the amount of buys.
“But it has to be realistic numbers. Forget about $80 a home. That is not realistic, particularly now, when we open up. Let’s say we can do a big event, people will be reluctant to open their homes to eight or nine or 10 other couples.
“So, more and more people will be watching a fight just with their families. So again, nothing is certain. The future is doubtful. But we have to look ahead and figure out how we’re gonna proceed in the future.”