Sky to shelve pay-per-view boxing

Sky Sports is axing pay-per-view boxing from its TV schedule for the forseeable future after a number of recent bouts have failed to live up to their billing, according to Sky Sports managing director Barney Francis.

Benchmark Breakfast: Barney Francis and Owen Gibson
Benchmark Breakfast: Barney Francis and Owen Gibson

This year Sky has screened high-profile bouts between heavyweight boxers David Haye and Audley Harrison and David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko, both of which failed to excite audiences and Sky executives.

Francis, speaking at a conference today (2 November) said: "We have shelved pay-per-view boxing," citing recent bouts as being "bad experiences" for the broadcaster.

Francis said: "I can’t see what fights are out there that people would pay for. There was general dissatisfaction with the Haye vs Harrison fight, and then the Haye vs Klitschko fight."

He said he had a lot of respect for English boxers, such as Amir Khan and Nathan Cleverly, but said there not are enough box-office fights to wow viewers.

But, it is likely that should a high-profile boxing contest emerge, then Sky could revisited pay-per-view.

Pay-per-view boxing has been key a plank over the years in Sky's increasing dominance in broadcasting major sporting events.

In the past, Sky Box office, its pay-per-view channel, has shown high-profile bouts including Lennox Lewis against Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno's fight against Mike Tyson.

But it is thought that recent fights have bought in less than expected pay-per-view buys for Sky and it is unlikely it will screen a pay-per-view fight in the next 12 months.

Francis was speaking as Sky Sports this year celebrates 20 years of broadcasting.

Additionally, he said Sky's approach to screening sporting events had changed in recent years and it no longer advocated a "scorched earth policy" of screening as much sport as possible.

Using cricket as an example, he said Sky customers "want to watch England play" but were not interested in all international matches.

Francis also highlighted Sky's expansion beyond its core TV offering, pointing to the rise of Sky Go platform-its online TV service which lets subscribers stream live TV onto their phones, personal computers and tablets.

He said the recent Premier League game between Manchester City and Manchester United had 600,000 streams, in addition to its TV audience.

Francis was speaking at an event hosted by Sport Industry Group, the sporting events company.

Follow John Reynolds on Twitter 

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