In response to questions of how fight fans are supposed to effectively budget a monthly stream of pay-per-view fights that usually threaten to reach the $100 threshold, Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh has proposed an offer to slash pay-per-view prices to $20.
Will it stop piracy? Will it build the fan base? What will it do to the market when other distributors are still charging their same rates?
So much is unknown, but on Tuesday’s edition of ProBox TV’s “Top Stories”, the thoughtful former 140lbs champion Chris Algieri offered his best guesses.
As BoxingScene reported in June, pay-per-view piracy is rampant, with experts saying: “It’s a major, major problem, and a low estimate is it’s taking away 30 percent of our buys.”
“I don’t know if it’s a way to fight piracy because it’s still $20, and if you want to steal it, you’re going to steal it – free is better than $20,” Algieri said. “Just make it free. If you’re losing money on your shows anyway, I don’t understand the $20 … .
“ … Maybe make it free for a year to let everyone start understanding who these [fighters] are, build up their market value, build up the fan base and then start charging the market price a year down the road.”
But discounting fights like the September 21 IBF heavyweight title fight between England’s Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium and the October 12 undisputed light-heavyweight championship between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev is a start.
“Because there’s going to be a barrier to entry for the sport if [fans] have to pay [so dearly] every month for these fights,” Algieri said. “It’s very difficult to build stars when you’ve got a price tag on your favorite fighter of hundreds of dollars a year – which is very difficult on some people for something of a niche sport and a hobby.
“Going to fights is very expensive. Watching fights is very expensive.”
As for the ripple effect, Algieri said he doesn’t expect other distributors – like Premier Boxing Champions fights on Amazon Prime Video – to slash their rates.
Unlike Saudi Arabia’s investment in the sport backed by the flow of oil money, these businesses have a bottom line they’re tending to.
“I’m curious to see how this plays out and I’m curious to see what the [pay-per-view] buys are,” he said. “Will they be through the roof – one million buys? Or still 75,000?”
Algieri, additionally, weighed in on Alalshikh’s tendency to project for the next fights while other fights have yet to occur.
“He’s snakebit a couple of these,” by speaking of a potential fight between former heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder and Joshua, only to watch Wilder get knocked out by Zhilei Zhang.
Alalshikh, more recently, has spoken about Joshua versus Tyson Fury even though both have significant tests before them.
“This has the potential to happen again,” Algieri said. “It changes the value of fights – not only the monetary value, but in terms of what fans attach to a fight. To say, ‘Yeah, we want to see Tyson versus Joshua regardless if they win or lose… ,’ it takes some of the luster – some of the shine – off the [scheduled] fights.
“When you start playing chess too far ahead, it makes everything seem contrived. Fight fans don’t want that. This is not the WWE. This is a sport. You have to win to move forward. It’s almost a tournament style. If you have people pulling strings saying, ‘This is going to happen … ,’ it looks much more [staged], in that, ‘We’re going to get there … .’
“It opens the door for controversy. If a fight could’ve gone either way and the guy we were told is going to fight next wins, it makes things very dicey for us as a sport. It looks more like entertainment than a competitive fight.”
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