Cable TV Execs Should Get In The Ring
As rain pelted an umbrella at Bryant Park shortly after last week’s Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe outdoor news conference was canceled, a well-dressed young man calmly ate a sandwich and discussed the bubbling excitement he felt about Mike Tyson’s return. “I’d pay to watch him fight my mother,” he said.
But would he pay for Bowe-Holyfield (“The People’s Championship”) and Tyson-His Mom if both aired on pay-per-view the same night?
That would mean $90 to $100 on the month’s cable bill.
That’s the choice fight fans face Nov. 4 if detente is not achieved between HBO’s TVKO (Bowe-Holyfield) and Showtime’s SET (Tyson vs. His Mom).
“There isn’t that much money in the market to make it comfortable,” said Richard Aurelio, president of Time Warner’s New York City Cable Group.
Pragmatism suggests a settlement (greed will win), but let’s hope for a smidgen more of the hostilities. For the sheer amusement found in corporate loathing, little surpasses the HBO-Showtime feud, born of the enmity between Seth Abraham, the president of Time Warner Sports, and Don King, without whom Showtime’s boxing and Bruce Seldon as a heavyweight champ would not exist.
This is an ego-driven tale of who-came-firsts. Last month, TVKO and SET told Request TV, a key pay-per-view distributor, that they wanted to stage fights on Nov. 4. TVKO wanted the date for a George Foreman fight that never materialized, SET for Tyson’s second fight. When Request requested that one party make a $50,000 deposit, SET paid up.
Before confirming late Wednesday that peace talks had begun with TVKO, McAdory Lipscomb, SET’s executive vice president, called his rival “a greedy company” that wants to “rob the viewer.”
The two sides have accommodated each other before. In late May, King faxed the Nevada State Athletic Commission to reserve Sept. 16 for a Julio Cesar Chavez fight (on SET), 20 minutes before promoter Bob Arum’s fax to get the date for an Oscar De La Hoya bout on TVKO. “Two weeks later, Arum moved De La Hoya to Sept. 9,” said Marc Ratner, executive director of the commission.
For the Nov. 4 fight, Ratner said that a fax sent by Rock Newman, Bowe’s manager-promoter, beat Don King’s, on behalf of Tyson, by two days.
If the combatants prove to be economic rationalists, what factors will help them decide on a solution?
Having enraged cable systems with onerous demands to carry Tyson’s Aug. 19 fight, SET may try to re-establish good relations by magnanimously offering to move the fight to December.
TVKO would find it tough to move its fight at the Caesars Palace outdoor stadium because nighttime in December is chilly. The Tyson fight is scheduled indoors at the MGM Grand.
Tyson’s performance on Aug. 19 could embolden or weaken King’s resolve. King may want to capitalize on a quick, brutal knockout of Peter McNeeley and boldly risk direct competition on Nov. 4; but if Tyson is unremarkable, King may feel that a retreat to December is beneficial.
Around the dial
TNT named CNN’s Vince Cellini the host of “Pro Football Tonight,” the pre-game studio show that will air Sundays from 7-8 p.m. before TNT’s nine games starting Sept. 3… . The most prominent voice in the NBA next season will be that of Dick Stockton, as he becomes the No. 1 NBA play-by-play announcer for TNT and TBS… . Warren Moon is still aboard TNT’s Sunday night NFL program despite domestic abuse charges. An official at the cable channel had no comment on a report Moon was about to be dismissed until he called a press conference to publicly apologize.