Showtime wins ratings war over HBO in head-to-head action
For the first time in some while, Showtime Boxing outperformed HBO Boxing as it netted roughly 100,000 more viewers then its counterpart.
In a tweet by Yahoo! Sports, Kevin Iole reported the numbers from the past weekend’s action.
#framptonsantacruz2 on Showtime averaged 587k viewers, peaked at 642k; Vargas-Berchelt on HBO averaged 497k, peaked at 549k
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) January 31, 2017
Showtime which aired Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz II averaged roughly 90K viewers more then HBO’s Francisco Vargas vs. Miguel Berchelt bout.
This is important since over the past year HBO has cut its boxing budget putting more of their broadcast on pay-per-view as well as focused more so on larger name fighters over quantity. On the hand, Showtime has steadily invested in boxing while struggling to match HBO’s ratings.