Showtime will buck pay-per-view boxing tradition and start its Sept. 13 Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana 2 fight at 8 p.m. on the East Coast instead of the usual 9 p.m. premiere, said network officials.

Network officials are hoping that the 8 p.m. start time will increase buys for the event by ending the event earlier for viewers in the Eastern and Central time zones who make up nearly 80% of the U.S. viewing population. Traditionally, the main event bout of a four-fight boxing card begins around midnight on the East Coast. Showtime said it wanted to make sure East Coast viewers didn't have to stay up past midnight to watch the main part of the event.

Showtime has not released buys for the first Mayweather-Maidana fight on May 3, but industry sources say it failed to hit the PPV gold standard of 1 millon buys. Mayweather won a competitve 12-round decision over Maidana.

“Pay-per-view boxing events have changed, and we think it’s time the scheduling changed too,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Showtime Sports in a statement. “Along with our partners at Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions, we have been presenting compelling four-fight cards with multiple 12-round world championship bouts. As a result, we’ve seen the start of the main event coming later and later into the night which is not an ideal viewing experience for viewers in the Eastern and Central time zones. No other major sport makes a significant portion of their audiences wait until well past midnight for the peak of the event. Showtime PPV will no longer be one of the exceptions.”

Showtime Sports will chronicle the training camps of boxers Marcus Maidana and Floyd Mayweather in the latest edition of its documentary series All Access beginning Aug. 30, said network officials.

The three-part series will lead up to the network’s big Sept. 13 Mayweather vs. Maidana 2 pay-per-view boxing event in Las Vegas. The Aug. 30 premiere event of All Access will be followed by a live ShoBox: The New Generation boxing card.

Episode 1 of All Access will take viewers inside the minds of Maidana and Mayweather after the fighters’ May 3 pay-per-view event in which Mayweather won by decision, said network officials.

Showtime is taking a jab at social media to promote its upcoming May 3 Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana pay-per-view event.

The network has teamed with welterweight champion Mayweather’s promotional company and the cable operators to offer as many as 20 to 25 short-form videos surrounding the fight on each outlet’s respective Instagram, Vine and Facebook pages. The videos take full advantage of those burgeoning social media platforms that offer 10 to 15 second clips, letting fans keep up with the fighter’s training and appearances leading up to the fight.

“Each group will have its own set of individual content tailored for them that is organic to their own marketing,” said Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza. “Each of the platforms will have their own videos and will be distributing them in their own voice … the fans aren’t seeing the same videos that are posted by Showtime, Mayweather or the cable operators.”

The social media campaign will be bolstered by a multi-million dollar media campaign that will feature ads on high-profile sports events like the NBA playoffs. “For Mayweather fights in general we cast a wider net …we go after the casual sports fan and the general sports fan that may only watch one or two boxing events a year,” he said. “We know for that viewer if they’re only going to buy one or two event a year it will be a Mayweather fight.”

In addition, In Demand is offering eight classic boxing matches featuring several boxers on the Mayweather-Maidana fight card, including Adrien Broner and Amir Khan.

Espinoza wouldn’t predict how many PPV buys the fight will generate, but the network’s Sept. 14 Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez PPV event drew 2.2 million buys – the second best performance in PPV event history.