Rich Davie
10-01-2009, 08:50 AM
HBO and Boxing: At a Crossroads
Wed 30-Sep-2009 01:11
By Thomas Hauser
HBO and boxing are at a crossroads. The first draft of the network’s overall budget for 2010 was presented in July. It called for a US$15,000,000 reduction for HBO Sports; a cut in excess of twenty percent. Then, during the first week of September, Michael Lombardo (president of HBO’s programming group and West Coast operations) further signaled senior management’s displeasure with the status quo by instructing HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg to cut several million dollars from the budget for the last quarter of 2009.
The key players in the drama that’s unfolding are HBO CEO Bill Nelson, co-president Richard Plepler, and Lombardo. Sources say that these three men have been frustrated by the absence of a coherent overall plan for boxing at HBO. Plepler (who has an extensive background in public relations) is said to have taken particular notice of the publicity that Showtime received when it announced its 168-pound championship tournament. He wonders why HBO Sports, with a far larger budget, has stirred so little media interest in its own boxing programming...
Continued here... (http://www.secondsout.com/columns?ccs=208&cs=106034)
Wed 30-Sep-2009 01:11
By Thomas Hauser
HBO and boxing are at a crossroads. The first draft of the network’s overall budget for 2010 was presented in July. It called for a US$15,000,000 reduction for HBO Sports; a cut in excess of twenty percent. Then, during the first week of September, Michael Lombardo (president of HBO’s programming group and West Coast operations) further signaled senior management’s displeasure with the status quo by instructing HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg to cut several million dollars from the budget for the last quarter of 2009.
The key players in the drama that’s unfolding are HBO CEO Bill Nelson, co-president Richard Plepler, and Lombardo. Sources say that these three men have been frustrated by the absence of a coherent overall plan for boxing at HBO. Plepler (who has an extensive background in public relations) is said to have taken particular notice of the publicity that Showtime received when it announced its 168-pound championship tournament. He wonders why HBO Sports, with a far larger budget, has stirred so little media interest in its own boxing programming...
Continued here... (http://www.secondsout.com/columns?ccs=208&cs=106034)