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Will Premier Boxing Champions survive?

In its first eight months of existence, the Premier Boxing Champions spent millions of dollars and made boxing more available via network and basic cable TV than it had been in well over a quarter of a century.

How one views the PBC’s success after eight months, with two shows remaining in 2015, depends on what side of the fence one sits.

Al Haymon, the founder of the Premier Boxing Champions series, is one of the most polarizing figures in the business. He’s made powerful enemies in the sport and is facing separate antitrust lawsuits from arguably the game’s biggest promoters, Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions.

The suit that Top Rank filed in federal court in July indicated that the PBC could lose as much as $200 million in its first 24 months of existence.

Danny Garcia stands on the Premier Boxing Champions stage before a bout.  (Getty)
Danny Garcia stands on the Premier Boxing Champions stage before a bout. (Getty)

Haymon and investors have always viewed the effort as a long-range plan and were prepared for harsh times early on, a source with knowledge of the PBC’s plans told Yahoo Sports. No PBC executive would comment, though the company released a statement touting that 85 million viewers have watched PBC on television since March.

“Less than nine months ago, on March 7, 2015, the Premier Boxing Champions series premiered on NBC,” the statement read. “The multi-network boxing series was created to bring live, world-class boxing back to the nearly 35 million U.S. boxing fans via broadcast and cable. As it passes its mid-season mark, the PBC has reached more boxing fans across all broadcast and cable television networks, with a cumulative audience of 85 million people, according to Nielsen Research.”

The early television ratings were extraordinary, though they have leveled off greatly. In particular, the audience among viewers 18-to-34 years old has flattened significantly.

The first four PBC broadcasts and five of the first six all exceeded 129,000 viewers in the coveted demographic.

In the eight-month period from March 7 through Nov. 7, there were 38 total PBC broadcasts. In the first 19 of those broadcasts, through Aug. 15, viewership among persons 18 to 34 exceeded 100,000 13 times.

But in the next 19 PBC broadcasts, ranging from an excellent Aug. 29 broadcast on ESPN featuring Leo Santa Cruz against Abner Mares through the Nov. 7 show on NBCSN, it hit only 100,000 in the 18-34-year-old demo three times.

Spike, a basic cable network primarily known for broadcasting mixed martial arts, has had eight PBC shows on its air. Its debut, on March 13, produced the largest total viewership (887,000) as well as the largest viewership in the 18-34-year-old demo (187,000).

Its low point came on Oct. 16, when it was head-to-head with the baseball playoffs. It drew a total audience of just 315,000 and, more significantly, just 50,000 viewers in the 18-to-34-year-old demo.

But its Nov. 13 show rebounded, according to spokesman David Schwarz. The audience increased to 474,000 viewers and saw a 15 percent increase in viewers among the 18-34 crowd.

Spike president Kevin Kay and senior vice president of sports, Jon Slusser, are both on vacation and were unavailable to comment. But Schwarz said the network envisions the PBC growing nicely on Spike.

“When you put a show on television no matter what kind it is, the first thing which must happen is people have to find it, and that’s a long process,” Schwarz said. “From our standpoint, the important thing is the quality, and the fights we’ve had have been outstanding. The [Marco] Huck-[Krzysztof] Glowacki fight [on Aug. 14] could be the fight of the year. [Nathan] Cleverly-[Andrzej] Fonfara was tremendous.

“We’ve been very happy with the quality of the fights. It takes time for the audience to find them and for the numbers to grow, and that’s for any show, not just boxing. We feel we’ve had great fights, terrific production and good announcers. That’s what we’re concerned about. As long as that remains a constant, the audience will find us.”

An NBC Sports Group spokesman confirmed the network is pleased with the numbers that the PBC has delivered to it thus far.

NBC has been sort of the PBC’s flagship and the numbers reflect that.

Krzysztof Glowacki (L) nearly sent Marco Huck out of the ring with a punch during their cruiserweight bout. (Getty)
Krzysztof Glowacki (L) nearly sent Marco Huck out of the ring with a punch during their cruiserweight bout. (Getty)

“When we announced our PBC on NBC platform last January, we committed to a multi-year arrangement. With solid viewership, we are looking forward to continuing to present and grow the series,” the spokesman said.

NBC has overall had the best matchups, at least in terms of pitting high-profile fighters against each other.

It has the four highest ratings of the year in the U.S. of any network, though many of the best action fights have come on the lesser-viewed networks.

But in the 10 most-viewed bouts of the year on U.S. television, PBC shows hold six of the top 10 slots, with HBO holding the other four.

NBC holds positions one through four, while CBS has spots eight and 10. HBO cards hold spots five through seven and nine.

Many in the media believe that the sheer volume of cards has made it difficult for any one fighter to gain traction, or even any one series of fights.

In the 1980s and 1990s, USA Network’s “Tuesday Night Fights” series was highly popular and featured many of the sport’s biggest names, including Roy Jones, James Toney and Lennox Lewis.

Fans knew to tune in at the same time on the same channel and on the same day of the week.

But PBC has been hurt by the vast expanse it covers on the spectrum. It has broadcast cards on NBC, NBC Sports Network, CBS, ESPN, Spike, Fox Sports 1 and Bounce. Beginning Jan. 23, Fox will also begin broadcasting boxing in primetime.

There isn’t the same familiarity with when it’s on and where with the old USA Networks boxing shows. Fox Sports has run cards on Tuesday nights and Spike once a month on Friday nights. CBS has been on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, while NBC and NBC Sports Network have gone both on Saturday night and Saturday afternoon.

The easier it is for a potential viewer to find, the more likely they’ll watch regularly.

TGB Promotions’ Tom Brown, whose company promotes many PBC cards, said the large number of cards make building young fighters into attractions easier.

The downturn in the ratings came in the fall when the PBC shows were going head-to-head with the NFL, the king on television when it comes to sports, and college football.

Brown, who took pains to emphasize that he is not expert in TV ratings, said the PBC cards have enabled promoters to give viewers a look at many fighters who may not have been on television in the pre-PBC era.

He used 2012 Olympian Errol Spence Jr., one of the game’s elite prospects, as an example.

“I’ve been in the business for 30 years or so and for much of that time, we had to take the kids and put them on the undercards of the big fights where a lot of the time, they wouldn’t have any TV,” Brown said. “We’d put them on in the arena just before either HBO or Showtime would go on the air and we’d tell them that someone from one of those networks would have a chance to see them and maybe like them. They were lucky if they got a little bit of international [TV] exposure and we could introduce them to the live audience.

“With a kid like Spence, we’ve had the chance to put him on and build a little following for him. When he gets to the bigger fights probably next year, there are going to be a lot of people who have seen him and know him and want to see what he can do as he fights for the title.”

Brown said that while not all of the matches have been compelling, those that haven’t were designed for a reason. Brown pointed to the upcoming middleweight title fight on Showtime on Dec. 5 between Daniel Jacobs and Peter Quillin as an example.

Michael Zerafa is knocked out by Peter Quillin during a fight on Sept. 12. (Getty)
Michael Zerafa is knocked out by Peter Quillin during a fight on Sept. 12. (Getty)

Quillin has fought twice on NBC, a draw with Andy Lee in April that was a compelling match, and then a blowout of overmatched Michael Zerafa, in September. But the fight with Zerafa was intended to give Quillin a bit more exposure heading into his fight with Jacobs.

“We weren’t telling people that fight would be the biggest in Quillin’s career,” Brown said. “That was one fight that led to another, and people who follow the series can see a guy like that build from one fight to the next until he gets to the big fight.”

The key is finding and retaining a young audience. The last time the PBC exceeded 100,000 viewers in the 18-34 demographic was on Sept. 26, when NBC broadcast a heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Johann Duhaupas.

That fight attracted an audience of 2.18 million viewers, with 176,000 of them in the 18-34-year-old demographic and 739,000 in the 18-49-year-old demographic.

Put simply, boxing can’t survive long-term if the majority of its audience is over 50, but the PBC’s ratings recently have shown exactly that trend.

The PBC debuted amid much media fanfare on March 7 on NBC, with a doubleheader that featured Keith Thurman and Robert Guerrero in the main event and Adrien Broner against John Molina in the co-main.

That show attracted 3.37 million viewers, including 554,000 in the 18-34-year-old demo and 1.38 million in the 18-49 audience group.

That was an encouraging start, but it quite literally has been downhill from there. That show remains the most-watched of the year on television in the U.S.

Advertisers covet the 18-to-34-year-old demographic so much that if a TV show isn’t resonating with an older crowd but is doing well with a younger one, the network will usually give it a lot more time until it’s canceled.

A source familiar with PBC management’s thinking said the executives understand it’s a three- or four-year process.

The number of sponsors during PBC broadcasts has picked up considerably, a sign that the series is at least gaining some traction.

But it’s going to be a long process in even the best-case scenario, and the competition will remain fierce.

Showtime, which is closely aligned with Haymon, will air the Jacobs-Quillin fight on Dec. 5, one which would have been perfect fodder for primetime on network TV.

But Fox is expected to kick off its PBC run in primetime with a blockbuster card headed by Keith Thurman against Shawn Porter in a welterweight bout.

The PBC has had its share of successes in 2015, and an equal number, if not more, failures.

If its ratings remain at or below the levels they are now at this point in 2016, there will be serious cause for concern.

But everyone involved willing to speak to a reporter on and off the record say that many of the kinks that developed in 2015 will be fixed in 2016.

The future of the PBC may depend on that being true.

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