High Costs and Piracy Concerns Fuel Pay-Per-View Controversy

Illegal streaming costs millions in lost revenue

Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson fight for WBA World Heavyweight Title on June 28,1997 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Fight was stop in the third round and Tyson was disqualified for biting Holyfield on both ears / Focus on Sport/Getty Images.

Pay per view (PPV) remains to be the most convenient and reliable mode for watching thrilling boxing matches, however millions of fans are left out due to the high cost of the PPV packages available. With the average cost of PPV being 50 dollars per match, some subscribers choose to stream illegally so as not to miss their favourite boxers in action. Illegal livestreaming potentially leads to millions of dollars in revenue losses from mostly advertising, sponsorships, and TV broadcast subscriptions.

Averagely, 60 to 70% of the revenue collected, based on the negotiated contract goes to the fighter, with the rest going to the promoter, venue and other miscellaneous costs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. leads the pack with a total of 24 million buys and approximately $1.6 billion in revenue.

“Floyd(Mayweather), he broke the bank. I don’t see him trying to give the game to the young fighters because he’s a promoter now. So, if they made all this money on our backs as fighters and now I’m a promoter I’m gonna do the same thing that they once was doing and just say it’s just the game of the business,” said Terence Crawford in a video on X.

The recent underwhelming match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was not aired on pay-per-view, but was streamed exclusively on Netflix worldwide. All one needed to stream the event, was a Netflix subscription. New subscribers accessed it for as little as $6.99 for a month's subscription, which was significantly cheaper than most major combat sports pay-per-views, which typically range from $49.99 to $74.99. This event marked Netflix's debut into the world of live professional boxing.

“It has also been reported that Benavidez vs Plant did about 49,000 PPV buys in the US alone..But this is the guy people are saying deserves a bigger purse than Plant got vs Canelo,” said Boxing Legend, Bob Arum while adding to the controversy. “Benavidez vs Plant did less than 100,000 PPV buys,” he added.

Purchasing any pay-per-view fight involves significant risk. For instance, there was immense anticipation for the infamous Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield match on June 28, 1997. However, for their $50, fans witnessed only three rounds and a notorious bite. While the "Bite Fight" did have its dramatic moments, many fans expected far more from the event. There were claims by some of the fans that they paid 50 bucks, only to watch Mike Tyson bite Evander Holyfield.

The undercards of most major pay-per-view events often leave much to be desired, with fans left feeling that they have wasted money on the PPV and not having watched their desired matches. When a pay-per-view (PPV) boxing match ends in the first round, typically, viewers do not receive any form of refund or compensation. The PPV purchase is for access to the event, regardless of its duration.

In September this year on his X page, Big Turki declared that he wants to lower Boxing PPV prices to $20 worldwide & said the Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol PPV will be $15 worldwide on Oct 12th. People watch illegally because the price is high. If I give good fights with a good price I will increase the fanbase.”

Away from the controversies and loss of revenue on illegal livestreaming, is it time to cut the PPV costs to make boxing matches affordable to fans worldwide or go the subscription way? How affordable is affordable? A $6.99 Netflix subscription may be seen as affordable compared to the $49.99 to $74.99 cost of a traditional pay-per-view boxing event.

“We will make PPV price no more than 19.99 GBP in UK, and in USA and the rest of the world not more than 25.99 USD (We want the fans be happy and enjoy it…Let’s get boxing great again),” said Turki Alalshikh recently, he is the Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) and has played a pivotal role in organizing major sporting events, such as high-profile boxing matches, as an integral part of the Riyadh Season in the recent past.