HBO World Championship Boxing: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

m

Line 35:

'''''HBO World Championship Boxing''''' (in later years stylized in its title card as '''''HBO Boxing – World Championship''''') is an American sports [[television program|television series]] on premium television network [[HBO]]. It premiered on January 22, 1973 with a fight that saw [[George Foreman]] defeat [[Joe Frazier]] in [[Kingston, Jamaica]].

HBO's [[pay-per-view]] distribution arm, TVKO was formed in 1990, which debuted in 1991 with [[Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman]], and was rebranded HBO PPV in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|title=HBO and Showtime Climb Into the PPV Ring|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/90-OCR/BC-1990-12-24-OCR-Page-0028.pdf|periodical=[[Broadcasting & Cable|Broadcasting]]|via=World Radio History|page=28|format=PDF|date=December 24, 1990|access-date=July 29, 2020}}<br>{{cite web|title=HBO and Showtime Climb Into the PPV Ring|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/90-OCR/BC-1990-12-24-OCR-Page-0029.pdf|periodical=Broadcasting|via=World Radio History|page=29|format=PDF|date=December 24, 1990|access-date=July 29, 2020}}</ref>

On September 27, 2018, HBO announced they would be dropping boxing from the network following its last televised match on October 27, though two airings on November 24 and December 8 were its last editions. Various issues in the boxing business, including the influx of streaming options (such as [[DAZN]] and [[ESPN+]]) and issues with [[boxing promoter|promoters]], along with declining ratings and loss of interest in the sport among HBO's subscribers, made continued carriage of the sport untenable. HBO's long-term move to upscale dramatic programming, an ownership transfer of parent [[WarnerMedia]] to [[AT&T]], and re-focus around the upcoming streaming service [[HBO Max]] also played a role in the decision, with an HBO executive commenting that "HBO is not a sports network."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/sports/hbo-boxing.html|title=HBO Says It Is Leaving the Boxing Business|last=Matthews|first=Wallace|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 27, 2018|access-date=September 27, 2018}}</ref>