In a major move for the pay-per-view business, industry PPV event aggregator In Demand will close its doors at the end of 2025.

In Demand CEO Dale Hopkins in a Friday memo to staffers said the company, owned by Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, will close at the end of 2025 and transition services to its owner companies over the next 18 months.

“We will do everything in our power to minimize any disruptions to our partners, owners, affiliates, and most importantly, the customers who have always been our North Star," Hopkins said in the memo. "It's never easy to make the decision to close a company, but with the rapidly evolving media landscape, the board determined this was the most sustainable outcome.” 

Formerly known as Viewer’s Choice before being branded In Demand in 2000, the company has served as the distribution liaison between event promoters and MVPD’s for hundreds of major pay-per-view boxing, wrestling and concerts, including the 2015 Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight, which drew a record 4.6 million PPV buys.

In 2022 the company launched the PPV.com app, allowing viewers to order and watch PPV events digitally. The app will continue to operate beyond the In Demand shutdown, said the company.   

“Over the last four decades, the innovative, talented, and dedicated employees of In Demand took a groundbreaking concept and built a solutions-driven company that is the gold standard of our industry today,” she said.” I am proud of our continued achievements and service over the years.”

In Demand’s decision follows Showtime’s 2024 departure from the PPV boxing business.   

Hopkins told Multichannel News that despite the decision to close In Demand in 2025, the PPV transactional business on both the linear and digital platforms is still strong. Indeed, the PPV event category is coming off a strong 2023, which delivered its first 1 million buy boxing event in more than two years with Showtime’s Ryan Garcia-Gervonta Davis event. 

“Keeping boxing and other [PPV events] on linear cable and also on the PPV.com direct-to-consumer app continues to be a very important goal for the industry,” she said. 

As for In Demand’s legacy, Hopkins said the company helped revolutionize the industry’s transactional business. “We were able to develop a turnkey, soup-to-nuts solution of VOD and PPV delivery for the entire cable industry from the early days of video delivery to now,” she said. “Our partners will continue to deliver these products to consumers and support the companies that supply the content.”

Pay-per-view content aggregator In Demand’s PPV.com digital service will look to engage boxing fans with a exclusive live chat that will run during its distribution of Saturday’s Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia super lightweight championship PPV event. 

The live text chat, hosted by International Boxing Hall of Fame announcer Jim Lampley, allows PPV.com fight purchasers to discuss the PPV event’s in-ring action in real time with Lampley along with boxing journalist Lance Pugmire and Inside Boxing Live podcast hosts Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri.

Also Read: DAZN Weighs in With Content Ahead of Haney-Garcia Fight

In Demand senior VP of programming and marketing Mark Boccardi said since Lampley began hosting the chat in 2023, the platform has consistently increased the total number of overall messages and the number of messages per buyer. PPV.com’s most recent fight card, the March 30 Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora event, set record marks in both categories, although Boccardi did not reveal specific numbers. 

“We want to have fans chatting and talking about what’s going on in the fights — that’s what differentiates our product and we’re definitely seeing that,” Boccardi said. “So much of that is attributed to having Jim on board … he is still beloved by fans, and he’s been a terrific addition to our team.”

Lampley, who serve as the blow-by-blow announcer of HBO Boxing for 30 years as part of a 50-year sports television career, spoke about his his new role at PPV.com as well as the evolution of boxing on television and its future prospects in an interview with Multichannel News. Here’s an edited transcript of that conversation. 

MCN: How much of an adjustment has it been for you from announcing live boxing matches to text chatting about the fights in real time? 

Jim Lampley: When HBO folded its boxing tent in December of 2018, I fairly confidently expected that at some point I would wind up doing blow-by-blow for some other boxing television purveyor. And that turned out not to be the case, so I was fairly certain that I was out of boxing. And then [In Demand and PPV.com president and CEO] Dale Hopkins approached me and asked if I would be interested in participating in a new media form, which is live chatting. It consists of texting out observations during the fight, not verbally expressed in speech form, but rather via a keyboard text during the fight. I've done about a half-dozen fights so far and commented in text on what I see, getting feedback from audience members and from the other media people who have worked with me on it, and it’s great fun. It's a terrific way to be back in the game and back at ringside. Every once in a while somebody will ask when they will hear your voice. I just say, ‘Imagine my voice when you look at the words that I'm texting because it’s like talking, but it's not exactly the same.’ 

MCN: Do you expect the Haney-Garcia bout to generate a decent amount of live messages given the hype around the fight and Garcia’s huge social media following?

JL: This weekend’s fight is very much a social media fight because Ryan Garcia seems to be a 23-hour-a-day social media user. All of these things figure into the ongoing process of telling stories and attracting fans to the stories of the fighters. I’m sure there will be a discussion about whether Garcia is crazy or crazy like a fox, given what he’s done on social media leading up to the fight. There's no rational explanation for why he jumped into Haney’s face and had a shouting match with him on the top of the Empire State Building and shoved him aggressively the way he did this week. I'm not sure what any of that accomplishes other than to draw attention to the event itself. In the ring, they’ve competed against each other as amateurs six times and the official record shows that each man won three, so that alone tells you that there’s every potential for a legitimately competitive fight.

MCN: You have seen the evolution of televised boxing from broadcast TV to premium cable and now predominantly the pay-per-view and streaming platforms. Is the current distribution model helping or hurting the sport's efforts in drawing in a new generation of viewers?

JL: Boxing is a storyteller’s sport, and it will thrive in certain audience segments and with certain kinds of events as long as the stories can be effectively told. I grew up watching [NBC’s] Gillette Friday Night Fights on what we called free television back then. Shows like that, [ABC’s] Wide World of Sports, and CBS Sports Spectacular were the places where boxing was distributed to a much broader audience. Then in 1971, the pay model was more or less created for the fight of the century between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The unique nature of intensifying and exploding demand by providing it only to the people who were willing to pay to get the signal served as a clarion call to boxing promoters and television distributors that there may be better ways to capitalize on the appeal of the sport rather than to do it in the old traditional broadcast format. Then HBO and Showtime became the model — you were still paying a monthly fee, but that became a more-efficient way of collecting money for the fights and pay-per-view. But wherever it is shown, boxing thrives when it can attract fans to the stories of the fighters. It’s the most human sport as long as that can be conveyed effectively in some way, shape or form. I'm confident there will always be an audience. I've seen boxing declared dead many times for some fairly valid reasons sometimes, but my response has always been that as long as human beings can stand up and walk on their own two feet on this planet, people are going to fight each other face-to-face for money. It's just too obvious a capitalization not to take place.

MCN: If you could call a boxing match between any two current fighters, what would that fight be?

JL: I’d like to call a fight between [undisputed super middleweight champion] Canelo Alvarez and [undefeated contender] David Benavidez. I hope that fight actually takes place.

In Demand will distribute legendary rock band KISS’s final concert via pay-per-view on December 2.

The live KISS: End of the Road PPV concert from New York’s Madison Square Garden will retail at a suggested price of $39.99 and will feature the band's final stage performance, according to In Demand. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have sold more than 100 million albums worldwide during a more than 50-year career. 

In Demand will distribute the event to its affiliate MVPDs and satellite service DirecTV, as well as through its PPV.com streaming service.

The Kiss concert joins In Demand/PPV.com’s upcoming list of PPV events, which includes the November 18 AEW: Full Gear pro wrestling event and Showtime's November 25 David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade boxing card. 

Saturday’s Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia pay-per-view boxing match is expected to draw the biggest audience so far in a year that could feature a number of mega-events for the category.

In Demand and its digital service PPV.com will distribute the Showtime-produced  event, which retails for a suggested $84.95 and pits the undefeated lightweight champion and emerging PPV draw Davis against the highly-touted, undefeated lightweight contender Garcia. 

Both Davis and Garcia have loyal fan bases and huge social media followings that will boost the match’s overall PPV appeal, industry observers said. “Both fighters bring their own unique audiences,” In Demand senior VP of programming and marketing Mark Boccardi said. “You have traditional boxing fans who tend to skew older that will be attracted by the matchup, but it also appeals to a massive, younger demographic because of the huge social media followings of the two fighters.”

Davis has been a fixture on PPV, having fought his last five bouts on the platform. His January 7 PPV event against contender Hector Garcia drew a reported 200,000 buys. Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza said the Davis-Garcia fight could firmly establish Davis as among the top PPV boxing draws in the category.

“What [Davis] has shown both in terms of his pay-per-view drawing power and in the [live gate] arena is that people respond to his events,” he said. “He does very respectable pay-per-view numbers every time he goes out.”

While Espinoza would not predict how many buys Davis-Garcia would generate, the industry is optimistic that the fight will approach the industry standard of 1 million PPV buy mark, which has not been surpassed since 2021, according to published reports.

“Looking at the enthusiasm that Davis-Garcia has generated, the outpouring of the support, all the anecdotal metrics including social media traffic and initial ticket sales, this could be the biggest pay-per-view that we've seen in quite a while,” Espinoza said. 

With three 2023 PPV boxing events already in the can and several other major fights in the works featuring such marquee PPV boxing stars as Canelo Alvarez, Errol Spence, Terence Crawford and Tyson Fury, Boccardi says that the category is primed for a big year.

“PPV is in the DNA of fight sports, so I think the concept of paying to watch the highest level programming in fight sports is going to continue,” he said. “The PPV category is strong and will be for the foreseeable future.”

Integrated Sports has teamed with SVOD company BLK Prime to distribute the December 10 pay-per-view boxing event between welterweight champion Terence Crawford and David Avanesyan.

The fight, which will retail at $39.99, will also feature the U.S. boxing debut of mixed martial arts champion Cris Cyborg. In Demand, DirecTV and Dish will make the fight available to linear cable viewers, while BLK Prime.com and PPV.com will stream the live event, according to Integrated Sports president Doug Jacobs. 

"We wanted to make the Crawford vs. Avanesyan PPV available for the masses, so we made the decision to go the traditional route with cable and satellite, in addition to our BLK Prime app," BLK Prime's Sam Katovski said in a statement. "Integrated Sports has been in the business for many years and has the experience to hit all corners of the United States. We are happy to be partnering with them and we look forward to a great night of boxing on December 10." ■

The pay-per-view industry will help kick off the upcoming college basketball season with an October 28 charity game between top-ranked teams Gonzaga and Tennessee.

PPV content aggregator In Demand and its digital service PPV.com will exclusively distribute the inaugural Legends of Basketball Classic exhibition game pitting the No. 2 Bulldogs against the No. 11 Volunteers in a charity event, with the proceeds benefiting the McLendon Foundation, according to the company. The event will retail at a suggested PPV price of $9.99.

While the PPV event category has historically featured ring sports including boxing, mixed martial arts and pro wrestling, In Demand senior VP of programming and marketing Mark Boccardi said the college basketball game helps expand the breadth of programming offered via the PPV platform.

"This is a tremendous tip-off to the unofficial start of this year's college basketball season," Boccardi said. "Having this game on PPV gives fans a unique opportunity to see a fantastic pre-season exhibition game between two of the highest-ranked teams in college basketball. It’s got a March Madness feel and we’re only in October."

Basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla will serve as play-by-play announcer for the game along with Gonzaga college basketball broadcaster Tom Hudson and Tennessee alum and college basketball analyst Dane Bradshaw. Fans purchasing the event on PPV.com will be able to participate in an interactive live chat during the game with reporter Andy Katz, said the company.

“We’re really excited for a new fan base of college basketball fans to watch on our platform,” Boccardi added.

Also on PPV this weekend is Showtime’s October 29 boxing card headlined by a bout between YouTube star Jake Paul and former UFC mixed martial arts champion Anderson Silva. ■

Pay-per-view content aggregator In Demand will look to sink its teeth into cable’s annual July shark-themed programming stunts with a special airing of Syfy’s original Sharknado movie.

In Demand on July 26 will distribute Sharknado: The Critics’ Roast, in which the first Sharknado film will feature new commentary from online film critics The Cinema Snob and the Nostalgia Critic, according to In Demand. Sharknado: The Critics’ Roast will be available exclusively to In Demand affiliates including Comcast Cable, Charter Communications and Cox Communications for a suggested retail price of $5.99, according to In Demand.

In addition, In Demand will make available for rent or purchase the full Sharknado movie catalog, including Sharknado, Sharknado 2: The Second One, Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, Sharknado 3: Extended Edition, Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, Sharknado 5: Global Swarming, The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time, as well as the mockumentary Sharknado: Heart of Sharkness.

In Demand’s Sharknado: The Critics’ Roast comes amid National Geographic’s four-week, 10th annual SharkFest programming stunt currently on-air, and Discovery Channel/Discovery Plus’ Shark Week event which premieres on Sunday (July 24). ■

Pay-per-view content aggregator In Demand will look to serve fight fans online seeking to purchase DAZN’s May 7 Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol fight with its new, interactive-based PPV.com website that the company hopes will grow as more viewers look to access big events digitally. 

The site, which the Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Comcast-owned In Demand launched this past December in partnership with interactive video company Kiswe, offers online users the opportunity to purchase PPV events like Avarez-Bivol outside of the company’s traditional linear PPV offering. PPV.com has already distributed 10 to 15 sports-themed events and has another three events scheduled through the month of May, according to In Demand senior VP of programming and marketing Mark Boccardi.

In Demand will launch a PPV.com app and hopes to have deals soon for mobile platforms Apple iOS and Android, as well as deals with connected TV platforms such as Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV by the end of the year. Boccardi recently outlined In Demand’s business plan for PPV.com with Multichannel News. Here's an edited transcript of that conversation. 

Also: Fite to Distribute Floyd Mayweather PPV Exhibition Bout 

Multichannel News: How does PPV.com fit into In Demand’s overall strategy of distributing major pay-per-view events to consumers? 

Mark Boccardi: In Demand along with our owners decided to launch a direct to consumer streaming platform because the pay-per-view business has become splintered. For every event, it’s become very confusing for the customer as to where they need to go to buy it – is it on Showtime? Is it Fox Sports? Is it DAZN? Is it Fite? Is it Triller? We already have relationships with all of these programmers and we’re carrying their content already via traditional PPV, so we thought we would consolidate all forms of pay-per-view distribution under one roof. We want it to be easy to find an event without having to subscribe to a whole new service. The beauty of PPV.com is that you just buy what you want.

MCN: Are you finding that more consumers are turning to the digital platform to purchase PPV events? 

MB: Absolutely. I think what we've recognized is that in order to be successful in this distribution environment, you have to be where the customers are. Clearly what we have seen happening across the entire TV landscape is a shift to digital as an option, and pay-per-view is a big part of that. It’s really just about customer options and being where customers are going to be. Having said that, the traditional pay-per-view platform with cable, satellite and telco distributors still represent the majority of pay-per-view buys for any one event. So what we're doing is really complimentary to the core business that we've always done. Now that we're in both, we can track and see how they move with each other, but the important thing for us is to be in both places.

MCN: What are some of the bells and whistles that PPV.com offers beyond the traditional event feed? 

MB: We offer a hosted chat where we bring in industry experts to guide the discussion between consumers on different subjects throughout the event. For [Alvarez-Bivol] we’re going to offer a bilingual chat. We also have an option for viewers to post video selfies to allow them to be part of the community. What we’ve heard from fans is that they love this more communal way to watch a pay-per-view event – you’re not just sitting alone at home but instead you’re part of this larger community. 

MCN: Will you look to expand PPV.com’s lineup beyond predominately ring sports events?

MB: I think everything is on the table. One of the nice things about having this new service is that we have a lot of programmers coming to us saying, ‘I have this concert or this sporting event.’ I’m confident that we’ll be carrying content outside of boxing, wrestling and soccer events. 

PPV.com May Event Schedule 

(Dates, Events and PPV Purchase Price)

May 7 – Boxing: Canelo Alvarez vs. Dmitry Bivol ($79.99)

May 14 – Boxing: Sergey Kovalev vs. Tervel Pulev ($29.99)

May 28 – Boxing: Gervonta Davis vs. Rolando Romero ($74.99)

May 29 – Pro Wrestling: AEW: Double or Nothing Price ($39.99)

Fresh off its Sept. 11 Evander Holyfield-Vitor Belfort pay-per-view event, event distribution company Triller will now turn its attention to its Oct. 4 Teófimo López-George Kambosos Jr. boxing event.

The PPV fight, for López’s undisputed lightweight titles, will take place on a rare Monday night after being rescheduled several times from its original June 19 date. In June López was diagnosed with COVID, initially postponing the fight to Aug. 14 before eventually settling on the Oct. 4 date at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The PPV event will retail at $49.99 and will feature several undercard fights as well as a number of musical performances which will be announced at a later date, according to the distribution company. In Demand will distribute the fight along with digital streaming service FITE.TV.

The López-Kambosos fight follows Triller’s Holyfield-Belfort event in which Belfort, a former UFC mixed martial arts champ, scored a technical knockout of the 58-year old Holyfield, who replaced COVID-19 stricken Oscar De La Hoya a week before the event. It's unclear how many PPV buys the fight generated. 

The event also featured commentary from former President Donald Trump, who provided color commentary through the event's multiple secondary audio programming (SAP) offering.  

As the TV sports world continues to recover from the pandemic, few sports are in a position to experience a greater renaissance than boxing -- particularly on the pay-per-view event platform.

The addition this week of the July 24 Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder trilogy fight to an already stacked summer PPV boxing schedule creates a dream lineup that could generate significant revenue for the PPV industry.

The PPV boxing industry was poised to have a strong 2020 after the second Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury heavyweight championship fight in February of that year drew a reported 1.2 million PPV buys -- the first fight to break the industry standard mark since 2018. With potential fights being lined up featuring the top draws in the sport including Manny Pacquiao and Canelo Alvarez -- as well as up and coming PPV draws such as Gervonta Davis and Errol Spence Jr. -- the category in 2020 was well positioned to generate significant revenue. 

Also Read: Tyson Fury Defeats Deontay Wilder in Big Heavyweight PPV Fight

Then COVID-19 hit and nearly all of the proposed big PPV events fell by the wayside. Showtime and Fox Sports jump started the category in late 2020 with PPV fight cards headlined by champions Jermall Charlo, Davis and Spence that averaged around a reported 220,000 buys across three fights. But it was a November exhibition fight between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. that proved that boxing could still deliver significant PPV purchases and revenue.  

That event, distributed by social media company Triller and featuring musical performances alongside traditional fights, drew more than 1.6 million PPV buys -- finishing among the top 10 biggest PPV events ever -- and set the category in motion to create in 2021 one of the more impressive stretches of PPV fights in recent memory. 

The June 6 Showtime-distributed exhibition fight between all-time PPV revenue champion Floyd Mayweather and YouTube sensation Logan Paul is one of three PPV fights scheduled over the next three months that have a puncher’s chance of hitting the 1 million PPV buy mark. 

The Wilder-Fury trilogy fight as well as the Aug. 21 Pacquiao-Spence Jr. welterweight unification fight -- Spence is arguably among the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport and Pacquiao is the second-biggest PPV revenue draw ever behind Mayweather -- could provide the industry its first year of three or more 1 million PPV buy events since 2017 when Mayweather-Conor McGregor, Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin II all surpassed the mark.   

Also Read: Manny Pacquiao-Errol Spence PPV Fight Set for August

Also on the summer PPV boxing schedule is Triller’s June 19 Teófimo López-George Kambosos Jr. lightweight championship PPV event and Showtime’s June 27 Mario Barrios-Gervonta Davis junior welterweight title PPV fight.

And that’s all before the fall when iconic fighters Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield and Tyson potentially return to the ring in PPV exhibition fights.

"2020 was incredible for PPV - we didn’t think we could top it but we’re on our way," said In Demand SVP programming and marketing Mark Boccardi. “2021 is shaping up to be a great year for PPV with a heavyweight title at stake, the return of Floyd Mayweather, possibly Manny Pacquiao’s last fight which will be against superstar Errol Spence, crossover social media fights, and still more to come.”

Even as the country begins to open up this summer and show signs of returning back to some sense of normalcy, the PPV boxing category is set to keep millions of fight fans glued to their TV screens over the next few months

 Multi-media company Triller is throwing its hat back into the pay-per-view event  ring Saturday, working with PPV event purveyor In Demand to distribute via traditional linear TV a boxing and music event headlined by YouTube personality Jake Paul’s boxing match against former mixed martial arts fighter Ben Askren. The event, which retails at a suggested price of $49.95, also features musical performances from such artists as Justin Bieber, The Black Keys, Doja Cat, Snoop Dog and Ice Cube. 

The event follows Triller’s successful Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. PPV fight/entertainment event this past November, which drew a reported 1.6 million PPV buys. Triller also recently announced a June 5 PPV fight card which will feature the return of former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield to the ring against Kevin McBride, as well as a lightweight title fight between champion Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos Jr. 

I recently spoke to In Demand senior VP, programming and marketing Mark Boccardi about Triller’s influence within the PPV event category and how the company’s new boxing/entertainment strategy will affect traditional PPV boxing events going forward. Here’s an edited excerpt from our conversation. 

Picture This: What is your take on Triller’s approach to pay-per-view boxing events? 

Mark Boccardi: Boxing promoters have been forced to look at events differently, and that's a good thing. There is a tried and true way of doing things that still works, but I think when you look at the mix of sports and entertainment that Triller is doing, they are featuring legitimate pro boxers along with retired athletes and social media stars, as well as major music acts including Snoop Dog. That’s not to say that the traditional boxing way doesn't work, but when you have some opportunistic entrepreneurs who mix boxing and entertainment, it’s a combination that really does work. So when we look at this weekend, it’s a great way for us to leverage our decades of pay-per-view expertise and experience with what Triller brings to the table and grow an even broader fan base for the sport.

PT: You mention broadening the fan base -- are the viewers purchasing Triller events a new generation of PPV boxing consumers?

MB: Absolutely. We saw that with the Tyson event back in November. What we had was a huge pay-per-view number -- it was the eighth best pay-per-view event of all time. It was a remarkable number that wasn’t just made up of your traditional boxing fan base, nor was it  just a young, new fan base who wanted to watch the Jake Paul fight; it was a combination of the two. It was a perfect storm of attractiveness that turned it into a mega event. So with respect to this weekend and what Triller is doing, they are absolutely tapping into a new fan base, but I wouldn't say that they're not picking up the older fan base. I definitely think that there's widespread appeal for it,   but bringing in the new audience is really such a key point here. 

PT: Can this event generate a million PPV buys without the added appeal of a Mike Tyson or another marquee boxer? 

MB: We’ll see --  there are a number of boxing matches, and they have some big name musical acts from Justin Bieber to Snoop Dog to Doja Cat. I think that helps draw in a different fan base that would otherwise not be interested in a boxing event. We have everything aligning on our end in terms of distributor marketing support, Triller marketing support and social media support. The whole marketing machine is cranking. 

PT: Do events like this diminish the value and appeal of traditional PPV boxing events that don’t feature musical entertainment or social media celebrities?

MB: No, not at all. I really do believe that both scenarios can work. We’ve been busy over the last few months planning multiple pay-per-view events this year with several major fighters including Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Errol Spence and Gervonta Davis. These are the names that represent the future of boxing. I think we’re going to have a really busy summer and fall for boxing, and we really feel good about the future of PPV boxing. There’s a lot of pent up demand because there hasn’t been a lot of those big events lately. 

Streaming sports service DAZN is taking a unique approach to adding subscribers with Saturday’s distribution of the Canelo Alvarez middleweight championship fight.

The SVOD streaming service will offer the Alvarez-Callum Smith fight via pay-per-view through PPV event aggregator In Demand for $69.99. As part of the deal, viewers purchasing the fight will receive a four-month subscription to the sports service, according to DAZN officials.

Alvarez will be fighting on PPV for the first time since signing a 12-fight deal with DAZN in 2018. That deal was nullified last month after Alvarez settled a breach of contract suit filed in September against DAZN and boxing company Golden Boy.

Also Read: DAZN Sets Canelo Alvarez Fight for December

DAZN senior VP of marketing Rob Stecklow said the offer provides an opportunity for the SVOD sports streaming service to introduce itself to boxing fans while luring back former subscribers who may have dropped the service earlier in the year when the pandemic halted most pro sports events, including marquee boxing shows.

“We’re taking the best pound-for-pound boxer in the sport and someone who has been on our platform for three fights," he said. “We want to put this fight in front of as many fans as possible, which is why we’re opening up the DAZN subscription package through the more traditional pay-per-view purchase.”  

For In Demand, the Alvarez-Callum fight is the third PPV boxing event in four weeks, following the successful Nov. 28 Mike Tyson -Roy Jones Jr. exhibition bout -- which drew 1.9 million PPV buys, according to industry sources -- and the Dec. 5 Errol Spence Jr.-Danny Garcia welterweight championship fight. Neither In Demand nor DAZN would say whether cable distributors would receive a split of the revenue generated from Alvarez-Callum PPV buys.

“We just came off two hugely successful fights with Tyson/Jones and Spence/Garcia; in fact, the Tyson event was one of the top 8 PPV events of all time,” said Mark Boccardi, senior VP, programming & marketing for In Demand. “While we recognize that the structure of the deal with DAZN is unique, it gives us the opportunity to get Canelo back on PPV and allows our customers to conveniently order from their existing cable, satellite, and telco providers. DAZN clearly recognizes the broad reach that we provide, and wants to tap into our audience with this arrangement.” 

DAZN’s recent run of big fights, including the Dec. 12 Anthony Joshua-Kubrat Pulev fight and tomorrow night’s (Dec. 18) Gennady Golovkin-Kamil Szeremeta middleweight fight, has helped the service reach its pre-pandemic subscriber numbers, although the service would not reveal specific figures. Stecklow added the PPV offer will provide greater exposure for DAZN’s combat sports-centric lineup of programming, but he would not project how many PPV buys the Alvarez-Smith fight will generate. 

Stecklow also wouldn’t rule out stepping into the PPV ring for future fights. “We ideally would like to do this with other fights, potentially with our Ryan Garcia-Luke Campbell fight on Jan. 2,” he said. 

Heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’s exciting one-punch knockout of top contender Luis Ortiz during their Nov. 23 pay-per-view event effectively concluded In Demand’s 2019 boxing campaign — a year in which the PPV content aggregator survived some early programming body blows from emerging sports streaming services.

Despite losing monthly UFC mixed martial arts events to ESPN+ this past March — and still reeling from the loss of marquee boxing matches from draws such as light heavyweight champion Canelo Alvarez to DAZN in late 2018 — In Demand officials said the company has found its footing in an evolving PPV events ring and is poised for a breakout year in 2020.

In Demand, owned by Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, has reached multi-event distribution deals with Premier Boxing Champions and All Elite Wrestling that will provide at least eight PPV events for its cable affiliates, representing more than 60 million subscribers. With negotiations for other high-profile events currently ongoing, In Demand executives said the reports of the PPV industry’s death at the hands of growing sports streaming services is highly exaggerated.

Money Still to Be Made

“The pay-per-view model is still a good business,” said In Demand president and CEO Dale Hopkins. “For big events, the greatest profits are still in pay-per-view.”

RELATED: Fox Sports Cornering the PPV Boxing Category

The Wilder-Ortiz fight was the sixth major PPV boxing event In Demand distributed in 2019, with four of those fights coming from PBC and Fox Sports. The new multiyear boxing output deal calls for PBC/Fox Sports to distribute a PPV boxing event each quarter, via In Demand. Bruce Binkow, president of Integrated Sports, a sports marketing and operations agency that represents PBC, said the company is bullish about In Demand and the PPV event category.

“Boxing has a long and successful history with the PPV platform … fighters have long known that becoming a ‘pay-per-view attraction’ is the ultimate achievement in terms of notoriety and earning potential,” Binkow said. “Additionally, fight fans are accustomed to gathering friends and family for a communal viewing party when a big fight comes around on PPV.”

For In Demand, the deal solidifies a lineup of marquee PPV fights in 2020 that offer revenue opportunities for affiliates. One of 2020’s first major events of the year could be a potential Feb. 22 heavyweight title rematch between Wilder and Tyson Fury. Their 2018 fight ended in an exciting draw.

“The matchups on PPV are stronger than those on the streaming side,” In Demand executive vice president of programming and general counsel Michael Berman said. “Not only are we getting a large number of fights over the next few years, but we know we’re going to get some great matchups as well.”

In Demand’s long-term output deal with AEW brings a former event staple back to PPV. (It’s unclear if the events will be made available on Turner’s streaming Bleacher Report Live service, as was the case with prior AEW events.) World Wrestling Entertainment had moved its monthly PPV events to its in-house streaming service, WWE Network, back in 2014.

The deal calls for AEW — which launched earlier this year and currently airs the weekly AEW: Dynamite on TNT — to distribute a minimum of one PPV event per quarter through June 2021.

AEW president and CEO Tony Khan said the deal with In Demand is a perfect complement to the wrestling franchise’s basic-cable series.

“PPV is still available in millions of homes, and it's still a convenient and easy way to order events,” Khan said. “In Demand has a great history in delivering big PPV events, and we’ve been able to connect with our fans already through events on In Demand.”

Mark Boccardi, In Demand senior vice president of programming and marketing, added that two previous AEW PPV events performed well for the company, although he would not reveal specific results. “[AEW] has a very energetic leader in Tony Khan; they have a very good stable of wrestlers; they have a Turner deal; and they have the industry's support,” he said.

“They have a lot of ingredients to make a successful PPV run.”

Early Blows in ’19

In Demand’s PPV event prospects for 2020 look a lot more promising than they did in early 2019. The move of UFC’s PPV events to ESPN+ in March was a big loss, particularly since $19.99-per-month subscription service DAZN had already picked off several popular boxers with pay-per-view appeal, including Alvarez, former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, to air exclusively on the streamer.

Fox Sports and Showtime helped filled the PPV event void with several marquee fights in 2019. While none of those events reached the gold standard of 1 million PPV buys, each event generated between 200,000 and 500,000 buys at suggested price points ranging from $65 to $75, according to industry sources.

Fox Sports executive vice president and head of programming and scheduling Bill Wanger said the PPV industry remains a viable option for the distribution of its biggest boxing cards.

“A lot of people forget that ESPN+ is doing PPV under a different model that doesn’t use traditional MVPDs; we think it's important to have traditional MVPDs selling the fight,” he said. “We also have a strong digital buying apparatus, where people can buy our events on a phone or tablet or however they want to watch it. We think we have the best of both worlds.”

Showtime, which distributed a Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner fight in February, will look to distribute two to four PPV events in 2020, according to president of sports and entertainment programming Stephen Espinoza.

“It’s undeniable that the market is going through a lot of changes spurred in large part by technology, but proclaiming the end of PPV is premature to say the least,” he said. “The best strategy for a content owner is to make the content available on as many platforms as possible whenever and wherever the consumer wants it.”

Sports analyst Lee Berke said there’s room for In Demand and the PPV category to coexist with upstart subscription sports services in today’s multiplatform sports TV marketplace, given that both platforms offer quality content.

RELATED: Wrestling Flies High on TV Again

“Purchasing a PPV event and subscribing to a streaming service is just another way of phrasing the same concept,” he said. “Combat sports continues to have strong appeal, but you need enough fighters that are deemed to be quality fighters to maximize revenues.”

Boccardi said the streaming services actually give boxing, MMA and wrestling a boost by exposing more up and coming fighters to fans who will hopefully go on to become major PPV draws.

“I don’t think it's all a negative that you have all of these distribution outlets,” he said. “If you’re a fan of the sport, you can go and watch fighters that you wouldn’t otherwise see.”

In Demand chief technology officer John Ward said the best platform to view high-profile PPV sports content continues to be through traditional pay TV. Current technologies like voice-enabled remote controls and online ordering — as well as new technologies like 5G — will continue to enhance the PPV experience for cable viewers.

“We want to give the consumer as many options and opportunities to get the content as possible,” he said.

This story was updated on Dec. 3. Showtime will look to distribute two to four events in 2020, not 2019.

Academy Award-nominated movies A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody will make their on demand premieres in February, according to on demand distributor In demand.

A Star Is Born, nominated for nine awards including best picture, will debut on most MVPD on demand lineups on Feb. 19, according to In Demand.

Bohemian Rhapsody, with five Oscar nominations including best picture, will premiere via on demand Feb. 12.

Other major studio films making their on demand debuts in February include:

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch -- PG (Universal) Feb. 5

Widows -- R (Fox) Feb. 5

Robin Hood --PG-13 (Lionsgate) Feb. 19

Ralph Breaks the Internet -- PG (Disney) Feb. 26

Turner Sports’ Nov. 23 Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson pay-per-view golf match highlights what has been a very unique and successful fall for the PPV event category.

The Capital One’s The Match: Tiger vs. Phil event – the first live, head-to-head golf event ever carried on PPV -- will retail at a suggested price of $19.99, according to Turner executives. Turner is treating the event, in which the winner will receive a $9 million prize -- like a big, boxing match. It has commissioned sister premium service HBO to offer its 24/7 sports documentary series – which is usually associated with marquee boxing matches – to follow the two iconic golfers leading up to the big event.

Golf fans can buy the match through traditional companies like In Demand and Vubiquity, as well as through new entrants like Turner’s Bleacher Report Live streaming sports service.

Tiger vs. Phil adds to what has become a very fruitful period for the PPV event category.

For the first eight months of the year, the pay-per-view event industry hadn’t had a lot to cheer about. Then in September, Canelo Alvarez and Genaddy Golovkin stepped into the boxing ring for a rematch of their highly controversial November 2017 fight, which ended in a draw. Along with being an action-packed fight -- won by Alvarez in a close decision -- the rematch drew approximately 1.1 million PPV buys, according to ESPN.

The Oct. 6 UFC 229 Conor McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov fight will be remembered mostly for the wild, post-fight melee that took place both inside and outside the octagon. Yet the event is trending to become the most successful PPV event in UFC’s history with more than 2 million buys, according to published reports.

Showtime will step into the PPV ring Dec. 1 with its big heavyweight championship fight between Deontay Wlder and Tyson Fury.

Looking ahead, the PPV category will certainly face some challenges beginning in 2019 as upstart streaming services like ESPN and DAZN compete for mid-sized combat sports events. DAZN’s deal to stream current PPV boxing champion Alvarez’s next 11 fights is a major body blow to the category.

But for now, the PPV category is enjoying a very event-filled and lucrative end to 2018. 

Former In Demand CEO Bob Benya has joined industrial internet platform and supply chain company Seven Stars Cloud Group, as president and chief revenue officer, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Benya had served as president and CEO of In Demand, a transactional distribution company, which provides movies, concert programming and live sports eventson a pay-per-view and on demand basis to MVPDs, from 2009 to 2017. Prior to that he served in numerous roles with other top cable companies, including Time Warner Cable (as chief revue officer in the 1980s).

Benya was replaced at In Demand by industry veteran Dale Hopkins in August.

"The President & CRO positions are a necessity based on our recent global expansion and Robert will be an essential part of our executive team as we continue to develop our B2B fintech-powered, supply chain solution," said Seven Stars chairman and CEO Bruno Wu in a statement. "His proven ability to manage and grow multiple revenue streams and provide high-level strategic insights will help us to capture our vast addressable market."

Wu assumed the role of CEO after former CEO Bing Yang said he would resign from that position immediately. Yang will remain with the company in an advisory role until the end of the year. In addition company director Sean Wang has resigned from SSC's board, but will remain in an advisory role with the company until the end of 2017.  At that point, Mr. Wang will return to Sun Seven Stars Media Group's investment division.

"It's clear that SSC's approach to Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology coupled with its strong partnerships, is providing industrial enterprises with a completely new and cost-saving way of trading and doing business," Benya said in a statement. "I'm honored to be selected as SSC's first CRO and look forward to joining this talented team and working with our innovative partners and customers."

*** 

LEARN MORE: NYC TV Week is coming up, starting with the 27th annual Broadcasting & CableHall of Fame on Monday, Oct. 16. For more about #NYCTVWK, click here.

Globecast said it has inked a deal to provide In Demand with fiber and uplink disaster recovery services that include playout and PPV services for In Demand’s live content and event channels.

In Demand, co-owned by Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Comcast, distributes major PPV events and out-of-market sports packages such as MLB Extra Innings, NBA League Pass and NHL Center Ice.

Under the deal, Globecast will provide continuous channel origination and uplink services of select PPV channels for AMC-11/3 and SES-3/13 satellite transponders, as well as terrestrial connectivity of three multiplexes from In Demand’s primary origination facility for uplink to AMC-11/3, SES-3/8 and SES-3/13 satellites. 

They said the plan originates from Globecast’s Media Center in Los Angeles, which uses a Media Factory technology that manages ingest, media logistics, transcoding, and order/schedule management for linear and VOD content to satellite, fiber, cable headends, CDN, IP and OTT distribution points.

“The combination of its Media Factory solution, cable satellite distribution and extensive fiber network infrastructure was the best fit for our disaster recovery needs,” John Vartanian, In Demand’s CTO, said in statement. “We are confident that Globecast is the ideal back-up service to safely automate and manage our PPV channels if the need arises." 

In Demand has tapped veteran cable distribution and marketing executive Dale Hopkins as its president and CEO, the company announced Tuesday. 

Hopkins, who replaces recently departed In Demand CEO Bob Benya, will oversee operations for the transactional distribution company, which provides movies, concert programming and live sports events — including this past Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor boxing match — on a pay-per-view and on demand basis to MVPDs.

In June Hopkins was named to the 2017 class of Cable TV Pioneers.

Hopkins was previously at the Sony Pictures Entertainment and AT&T Entertainment Group-owned cable network GSN, where she held multiple roles during her more than eight-year tenure, including serving as executive vice president of distribution and CMO.

Prior to that, Hopkins served as COO of Comcast-owned G4 Media.

“In Dale, In Demand is gaining a multi-faceted leader, someone with superb business acumen who has successfully delivered value and growth throughout her career,” said In Demand board chairman Tom Montemagno in a statement.  “She has a deep well of knowledge from across several business sectors, and is well known and respected within the media industry. We are excited that she has agreed to come on board, and look forward to her partnership with the strong leadership team that we have at In Demand.”

Tony Dunaif, former SVP, digital products, for iN Demand, the joint venture of Charter, Comcast and Cox, has been named executive vice president and head of international affairs for performing rights group ASCAP.

Dunaif, who will report to ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews, will be responsible for leading ASCAP's international team, both business and relations, including other performance rights groups and CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.

"Tony’s experience in digital business growth, strategic licensing and multiplatform content partnerships is the perfect combination of strengths to help drive a successful future for our members internationally," said Matthews.

Dunaif's resume includes VP of content partnerships and international development at Brightcove and chief marketing officer at Inform Technologies.

Four marquee boxing and UFC pay-per- view events over the next two months could salvage what has been an otherwise weak year for the category.

After generating more than $500 million in revenue last year — some $400 million from just the May 2, 2015 Floyd Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao welterweight title fight — the live PPV-event category has garnered less than half of that take through the first 10 months of 2016, industry sources said.

Distributors hope a flurry of big PPV events in November and December will help pad the category’s revenue take. The latest addition to the PPV category is the Dec. 30 return of UFC star Ronda Rousey to the octagon, more than a year after her shocking loss to Holly Holm in last November’s UFC 193.

UFC CARRYING THE LOAD

The show joins UFC’s Nov. 12 PPV event from New York’s Madison Square Garden, which will feature popular UFC fighter Conor McGregor. In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development Mark Boccardi said that the appearance of Rousey and McGregor in two of the final three UFC PPV events -- the MMA outfit will also distribute its UFC 206 event on Dec. 10 -- will cap off what has been one of the most lucrative years for the UFC in terms of PPV revenue, although he would not disclose specifics.

“Clearly, this is a year where the UFC is helping the entire category,” Boccardi said. “Everyone sees that boxing is down — we had no Mayweather and one Pacquaio fight so far [this past April against Timothy Bradley Jr.] — so the UFC’s really strong performance is good for the overall health of the business. The events feature two tentpole athletes for PPV in Rousey and McGregor — the two are by far the biggest UFC PPV stars — and the crossover appeal that Ronda has you can’t overstate.”

Related > UFC: Too Legit to Quit

Two high-profile PPV boxing events will also take place within two weeks of each other in November. This Saturday ([Nov. 5) Pacquiao will step into the PPV ring for a fight against WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas, while Nov. 19 will pit Sergey Kovalev against Andre Ward in a battle of undefeated light heavyweight boxers.

Boxing promotion company Top Rank, which is distributing the Pacquiao-Vargas fight, isn’t concerned about cannibalization, given the back-to-back-to-back marquee PPV events, company president Todd duBoef said.

DAILY DOC SERIES KICKS OFF

Top Rank recently turned to the Web to promote the fight. The network last week launched ALL IN: Pacquiao-Vargas, a daily documentary series on Top Rank’s Facebook page and Twitter feed that it said will give boxing fans an inside look at each fighter’s daily preparations.

Related > Building Boxing's Next PPV Champ [subscription required]

HBO will push the lion’s share of its promotional efforts for the Kovalev-Ward fight to the week before the event in an effort to avoid the marketing noise from the Pacquiao-Vargas and UFC 205 events. While there is a concern about potential cannibalization of viewers, HBO vice president of programming Tony Walker said the network is confident its event would appeal to boxing fans looking for a competitive matchup between undefeated fighters.

“There are some [cannibalization] concerns, but we think our fight is of a quality that will make people watch it,” Walker said.

Since the commercial deployment of video on demand in 2000, iN DEMAND’s delivery of movies via cable’s VOD platform has generated nearly $8 billion in retail revenue for its affiliates. The platform continues to be a powerful revenue-generator for MVPDs, and is part of a huge business ecosystem. In a typical month, new movie titles premiering on demand represent $900 million in total domestic box office.

In recent years, the entire media business has shifted, and the transactional video on demand industry is no different. It has transcended challenges and embraced new frontiers in licensing, content processing and delivery. Cutting-edge technology is required in order to move massive amounts of content in multiple emerging formats, and do all this with dependability and efficiency.

To keep pace with the changing scenarios, MVPDs are leveraging new analytics to expand customer engagement strategies that will help them cope with these changing trends. Operators have vastly increased the amount of content they provide. Improved search and discovery now makes it easier for customers to find anything they want to watch. The free on demand (FOD) category has also expanded, which in turn has made customers more comfortable with the platform and more aware of the transactional segment of MSOs’ offerings.

With the proliferation of new video services and content management services, content aggregators like iN DEMAND are at a crossroads. One way that iN DEMAND addresses current challenges is by making continuous improvements in its approach to client service. A huge inventory of content flows through the company’s infrastructure and it has to be managed meticulously. Working with 220 content providers, iN DEMAND delivers every genre of movie, from comedy to action, to high profile, revenue-driving live sports and PPV events, across varied platforms.

According to Lauren LoFrisco iN DEMAND’s EVP, Distribution and Business Services, “Our company provides contemporary solutions to reduce the pain-points of our clients, and help grow their revenues. iN DEMAND embodies customer service as the 'Future Ready' underpinning of our company’s mission. Filtering all we do through this strategic context enables us to be more innovative and to be an indispensable business partner. We have a workforce of expert engineers, licensing leaders, smart schedulers and progressive programmers, who make it possible for our clients to serve a wealth of transactional entertainment to their customers. For over 30 years of upheaval and industry change, the people here at iN DEMAND have been dedicated to making clients the #1 priority.”

The company’s operations and technical team prides itself in responsiveness and flexibility to customers’ needs. “We are in business to provide creative solutions that make it easier for our affiliates to deliver an extraordinary amount of entertainment at the highest quality,” said John Vartanian, iN DEMAND’s Chief Technology Officer, “With an eye towards increasing buy rates, we are able to deliver customized MSO specs and metadata, and build stunts and categories that help them generate more transactions,” he added. The company also uses technological advancements to improve its products. By taking advantage of new video compression standards and advances in compression algorithms, they can deliver content at lower bit rates, resulting in reduced storage costs and decreased VOD contention at cable systems. “We are constantly adapting to support any technology that the MSOs choose,” he said. “For example, we are in the testing phase of HDR and 4K and will be ready to support affiliates when they are ready to deploy.”

iN DEMAND also specializes in leading-edge marketing support that helps MVPD clients drive awareness and purchases of movies on demand, PPV and event content. Their marketing team customizes thousands of cross channel spots, produces barker channels and provides creative services for seasonal and tactical campaigns. According to Chief Creative Officer Stacie Gray, “Our team also focuses on enhanced services in digital and social media marketing. Notable is our iN DEMAND Productions unit that covers movie junkets and film festivals, producing interviews with stars and other high-profile talent. This exclusive video content is helpful to our clients who use it in free on demand platforms and in their social media channels to enhance their own promotion.”

“Our video distributors depend on iN DEMAND to deliver over 300,000 hours of content resulting in 120 million transactions every year,” added LoFrisco. “Our technology and industry-leading innovations will ensure we keep delivering what our clients’ customers want to watch no matter how they watch it.”

For a worry-free PPV/VOD partnership, join our family of video providers or add your content to our portfolio. Learn more at http://www.indemand.com/what-we-do/

When pound for pound pay-per-view boxing champion Manny Pacquiao stepped out of the ring and into retirement after his April 9 unanimous decision win over Timothy Bradley Jr., so went the second-biggest revenue generator in pay-per-view event history.

Pay-per-view boxing’s all-time revenue generator, Floyd Mayweather, had already hung up his gloves last year. The retirements of PPV boxing’s two top draws leaves the category with huge shoes to fill as it comes off its most-successful year ever — success due largely to the record-setting “Fight of the Century” between Mayweather and Pacquiao on May 2, 2015.

It could be years before another PPV-boxing match rises to match the performance of Mayweather-Pacquiao, which raked in 4.5 million buys and more than $400 million in revenue. But it might take just a few rounds for the sweet science to crown some new champions capable of consistently surpassing the industry’s benchmark of 1 million PPV buys, boxing observers said.

Up-and-coming champions aren’t just getting greater television exposure from traditional boxing outlets like HBO and Showtime. New distribution hubs such as the Premier Boxing Champions series — which airs on NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN and Spike TV, among other outlets — are affording exposure to young fighters. And digital media, with its reach and immediacy, can help a fighter quickly build a brand beyond boxing circles.

“There’s always going to be the question of who’s next,” In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development Mark Boccardi said. “It’s a cyclical business and since the late 1990s, there’s always been someone to be that guy or those guys, and within the industry everyone is confident there will be a fighter or fighters who can do that.”

Indeed, after such heavyweights as Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis — as well as lighter-weight fighters like welterweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez — dominated the PPV category in the 1990s, there was a lull before Oscar De La Hoya assumed the mantle in the mid-2000s. Once De La Hoya retired, the stage was set for Mayweather and Pacquiao to rule the PPV event business.

STAR SEARCH

The template for building a PPV fighter has already been established, said Bob Arum, the president of boxing promotion company Top Rank. The key now is to find a fighter or fighters who can follow the game plan.

“It all depends on taking a fighter and putting him in a position where he can attract people to spend money on PPV to watch him fight,” Arum said. “That’s easily said and hard to do.”

Arum, a veteran promoter who worked with Pacquaio and promoted Mayweather in his early boxing years, said that in addition to championship in-ring skills, first and foremost a successful PPV fighter must appeal to as many demographic groups as possible — something both of the aforementioned fighters were able to accomplish over the years.

So who’s closest to stepping into the vaunted PPV ring? The consensus among most boxing observers is that Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez is poised to make the quickest move to PPV superstar status. The middleweight champion — who’ll fight Amir Kahn in a May 7 HBO-distributed PPV event — has already participated in the third-biggest PPV event of all time: his 2013 fight against Mayweather, which drew 2.2 million PPV buys.

His last fight, in November 2015 against Miguel Cotto, pulled in more than 900,000 buys, according to HBO.

“Clearly, with Canelo, you have a PPV superstar that can transition into the next great era,” Mark Taffet, president of sports marketing/consulting company Mark Taffet Media, said. “The challenge for the sport, in order to create a regular flow of million-buy mega-fights, is to develop a great supporting crew.”

Other up-and-coming fighters like welterweight champion Keith Thurman, junior welterweight champ Terence Crawford, middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin, undefeated former super middleweight champion Andre Ward and heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua have been identified as potential draws either on their own, or pitted against one another in PPV mega-fights.

Top Rank will look to build a July PPV card featuring Crawford, Arum said, while the industry is hoping to schedule at least one fall PPV mega-event, although it’s unclear who would headline it.

STILL BUILDING FANS

But as good as those fighters are — and as well-known as they are within boxing circles — they still have yet to develop the broad, diverse audience they’ll need to win in the PPV arena, according to boxing observers.

“It takes time,” said Tony Paige, a boxing broadcaster and sports-talk host on New York radio station WFAN. “The fighters will have to build themselves up with big fights over time to become big PPV draws. If you get enough big wins, you’re driving the bus, so to speak.”

Some observers said the development of the Premier Boxing Champions series, which showcases current champions and young fighters on live fight cards airing on NBC, CBS, Spike TV, ESPN, NBCSN, CBS Sports Network and FS1 — along with other networks like BET and truTV from time to time — as a step in the right direction.

“The sport is not only in the transition to see who ascends to the mountaintop next, but I think there’s a great opportunity with the quickly changing television landscape and technology to reach out and attract the next generation of fans to support the next generation of fighters,” said Taffet, who most recently served as senior vice president of HBO Sports. “It’s a challenge promoters and networks must readily accept to insure a very fertile environment for the sport going forward.”

But offering fights on too many outlets could actually curtail the ability to create one or two mega-stars, Paige cautioned. “It’s hard to build up interest in one particular fighter when that fighter fights one month on one network and then maybe three months later on another network,” he said. “It’s hard for fans to keep up with the schedule.”

Developing continuity in the sport’s message to the consumers is critical if boxing is to build its next wave of top fighters into PPV superstars, Taffet said. “It’s important for consumers to regularly be in touch with the sport, the athletes and the storylines, so that in their increasingly busy, media-savvy days they can develop the attachment that leads to true fan support on an ongoing basis.”

One way to get a fighter’s brand beyond boxing’s core fan base is via social media. Digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram give promoters, fighters and sponsors a chance to continuously feed fans’ appetites in ways that have yet to be fully exploited, Taffet said.

Added WFAN’s Paige: “If you don’t get beyond your core followers you’re just preaching to the choir. What always makes boxers and boxing successful is when you get a crossover audience of people that don’t have anything to do with boxing, but are interested in the fighter.”

Getting to that point will take a combined eff ort from several corners, according to executives.

“It’s not just as simple as everyone getting together and saying let’s just create someone,” said In Demand’s Boccardi. “It’s a combination of the promoter doing their job and finding the fighters, the networks doing their job and helping to develop them, and the PPV industry doing their job to help promote those fighters.”

BBC Worldwide North America has appointed former Scripps Interactive executive Sergei Kuharsky as its senior vice president of strategy and business development, the company announced Thursday.

Kuharsky will be responsible for helping to drive growth across the company’s U.S. and Canadian businesses, and identifying new business opportunities through partnerships and acquisition, according to the BBC. Kuharasky, who will report directly to BBC Worldwide North America president Ann Sarnoff, will also take the strategic lead in the development of key franchises like Top Gear, Doctor Who, and BBC Earth across all businesses, said the company.

Previously Kuharsky served as general manager for Scripps Networks Interactive’s Food Network. Prior to that, Kuharsky was excutive vice president of sales and marketing at In Demand Networks.

"Sergei and I worked together at Nickelodeon to help expand Nick's brands," said Sarnoff in a statement. "Throughout his career, Sergei has a proven track record of success in building businesses. I can't think of a better person to help us plot BBC Worldwide North America’s strategy as we grow in the U.S. and Canada."

To read the headlines, operators and cable networks are on the ropes these days, given recent trends toward time-shifted viewing and its negative effect on ratings.

Still, several networks are fighting back with the power ratings punch of live ring sports.

Live boxing, pro wrestling and mixed-martial arts (MMA) programming continues to deliver healthy ratings numbers for networks like FS1, Spike TV, USA Network, Showtime and HBO as sports fans gather in front of large screen TVs to watch action-packed — and unpredictable — DVR-proof live events that help drivesocial media discussion before, during and after the fisticuffs.

Moreover, distributors are experimenting with new technologies like 4K and virtual reality for live ring sports events, while others are exploring OTT options to allow fans to watch all the action on multiple screens.

“It’s unscripted, it’s live and it’s real,” FS1 senior vice president of programming, research and content strategy Patrick Crakes said. “Two people in the ring together trying to test each other — anything can happen at any second.”

RELATED:Stepping Into the TV Ring: A Sampling of Live Ring Sports Events March 1-May 31

SPOILING FOR FIGHTS

Viewers, it turns out, like a good fight, and lots of them are tuning in to see the action. Spike TV’s Feb. 19 Kimbo Slice-Dada Bellator 149 MMA telecast drew a record 2 million viewers — the biggest audience for the general-entertainment channel this year outside of its hit series Lip Sync Battle. The event was part of the network’s Friday-night lineup of live MMA and pro boxing events.

FS1’s live Ultimate Fighting Championship telecasts in 2015 generated 15% of the network’s viewing audience, while comprising just 12% of its programming schedule, according to Crakes. In 2015, FS1’s 26 live UFC events in primetime averaged 1 million total viewers.

So far this year, four live UFC events on FS1 have averaged nearly 1 million viewers. The network is set to air live coverage of the preliminary bouts for UFC’s 12 pay-per-view events, as well as 15 additional live UFC fight cards.

“All of the network’s UFC programming is trending up year to year,” Crakes said. “It really became a phenomenon — it provides a lot of high-quality content.”

Ring sports — especially pro wrestling and MMA — draw the younger viewers who are tuning out of traditional TV programming more often than not, UFC executive vice president and chief content officer Marshall Zelaznik added.

The median age of UFC’s viewer audience is 37.8 years, which skews younger than that of the major U.S. professional sports leagues by 4.8 to 12.1 years, according to the company.

Meanwhile, boxing is gearing up to build on arguably its most successful year ever, from a pay-per-view revenue and ratings standpoint. HBO has already slated two PPV fights in 2016, the April 9 Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley Jr. fight and the May 7 Canelo Alvarez-Amir Kahn bout. It hopes to ride the coattails of last May’s record-setting Floyd Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao event — which generated more than $400 million in PPV revenues — as well as last November’s Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez bout, which drew nearly 1 million PPV buys.

RELATED:HBO's Nelson Looks to Pack a Punch in ’16

A WINNING SEASON

The mixed martial arts and pro wrestling categories are also coming off strong 2015 PPV campaigns, and are looking ahead to big revenue and buy returns this year, Mark Boccardi, In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development, said.

“Ring sports are by nature cyclical, but we’re at a point now where everything has been clicking for these distributors on PPV,” Boccardi said. “UFC had an incredible bounceback year; boxing had its best year ever, due mostly to Mayweather-Pacquiao; and with WWE we still do significant buys for those customers that aren’t subscribing to [the WWE Network over-the-top service, which carries that company’s PPV events].”

As the TV marketplace continues to evolve, network executives said, live ring sports will remain a valuable programming asset for networks looking for a relatively low-cost sports offering — compared with the billion-dollar rights fees commanded by pro sports leagues — that will deliver a unique and loyal audience.

“The value of having a cost-effective sport in today’s sports marketplace can’t be overstated,” said Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president of Showtime Sports, which will mark its 30th year of championship boxing coverage in 2016. “We all know where the industry trend is going in terms of rights fees, so it seems like many programmers have discovered a relatively low-cost barrier to entrytype of sports programming.”

Indeed, networks like AXS TV have relied on live ring sports programming to help build their brand with would-be affilliates and viewers. The Mark Cuban-owned entertainment service has been offering live MMA, boxing and wrestling events on Friday nights for more than a decade.

This year, the network will air 42 live ring sports events, AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon said. The immediacy of the events, and the need to watch them as they’re happening, have helped put the network on the map.

“In today’s television world, we don’t know many people who are watching TV in real time outside of sports,” Simon said. “It’s sports that you have to watch live. You do not want to hear that Holly Holm beat Ronda Rousey and then watch a replay of the fight — you want to watch that live and then be able to join in the social engagement afterwards.”

Even pro wrestling, a heavily scripted but still action-infused genre, has benefited from providing live content to its legion of fans. USA Network continues to draw more than 4 million viewers a week for its weekly, live WWE Monday Night Raw series, which is now in its 23rd year.

The live Raw telecasts allow WWE fans to engage with must-see television every week, while affording USA Network an opportunity to showcase its other programming to pro wrestling’s loyal and committed viewer base, NBCUniversal Entertainment Networks president Chris McCumber said.

“As the most-watched regularly scheduled year-round program on cable, Monday Night Raw is an extremely valuable franchise, with three hours of live, high-octane entertainment airing on USA every Monday night, 52 weeks a year to a massive, passionate, loyal and engaged fanbase,” McCumber said in a statement.

Added WWE chief revenue and marketing officer Michelle Wilson: “While the TV landscape continues to evolve, live, DVR-proof programming remains extremely valuable to both our partners and fans. Live programming also serves as the core of engagement across digital and social platforms and drives the conversation all week long, 24/7.”

SOCIAL-MEDIA STRENGTH

Live content is also a major driver of socialmedia action. Of the 10 most-discussed TV shows on Twitter in 2015, six were live sports telecasts, according to Nielsen.

“It boosts social traffic because people are talking to each other about what they’ve seen on the live telecast,” Spike president Kevin Kay said. “If you have a great knockout or great submission, the first thing that happens is somebody says, ‘Did you see that?’ and that drives viewership and conversation on social and drives up traffic during the fight and after the fight.”

Several networks are working toward making sure viewers can see those big knockouts through technological enhancements like 4K and virtual reality.

UFC will look in the near future to implement virtual reality and 4K-enhanced video for live events offered on its Fight Pass OTT service, UFC’s Zelaznik said.

The subscription-based Fight Pass will offer live coverage of the undercard fights for UFC’s more than 41 live events, as well as more than 110 shows for non-UFC MMA events.

“We think we can provide more value to Fight Pass subscribers and continue to experiment with the new technologies,” he said. “What we can deliver digitally is really high-quality clarity.”

Executives from FS1, AXS TV and Showtime also confirmed experimentation with either or both 4K and virtual reality for their live ring-sports events.

“Virtual reality provides some real opportunities because of its ability to immerse people at home to the experience,” FS1’s Crakes said. “We always hear from our fans that they want the telecast to bring them closer to the event, and virtual reality — if we can make it work inside the home — has that potential. To be able to give everybody a ringside seat is pretty appealing.”

Even more distributors are getting into the live sports ring. Pop will offer its first live TNA Impact Wrestling telecast on March 15. It launched the pro-wrestling series, which had previously aired on Spike TV and later Destination America, in January.

“Impact Wrestling on Pop is must-watch appointment television that delivers a consistent, loyal audience every Tuesday night,” Pop president Brad Schwartz said. “It is 52 weeks a year of original content, including many weeks that are live, like the upcoming live event on March 13.”

El Rey Network may also look to develop live pro wrestling shows based on of its original wrestling series Lucha Underground, according Eric Van Wagenen, showrunner and executive producer for the Mark Burnett-produced reality series.

The sophomore series, which features Mexican pro wrestling content, deliberately does not market or promote episode highlights in advance of its premiere in an effort to replicate the excitement and must-see appeal of a live wrestling telecast.

“It’s absolutely conceivable that we would get to a point of offering a live event,” Wagenen said. “We’re taking a measured approach. The advantage of shooting a season is that it gives us an off-season — we could conceivably supplement the series with live events during that time.”

Also lacing up its live-event gloves is digital company Flipps Media, which earlier this month launched the FITE TV app offering select PPV ring sports events via mobile devices.

Just this past weekend, the service offered six live PPV combat sports events, including Ring of Honor professional wrestling and World Armwrestling Championship events that were also distributed by In Demand, DirecTV and Dish Network.

The FITE TV app can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play, and provides users the option of streaming a live show on a phone or connecting directly to a Smart TV, FITE senior vice president of marketing Michael Weber said.

Along with live PPV programming, the service has deals to distribute free, ad-supported VOD combat sports content.

OTT IN THE RING

“You can’t be in this business doing live event PPV programming and not look for alternatives to cable and satellite,” Weber said, adding that the company is hoping to secure rights deal with other PPV event distributors.

“We all know cable subscriber numbers are shrinking every year, so this makes sense for all the programmers to be looking at new ways to deliver programming,” Weber added. “We’re not trying to replace cable, we want to supplement it.”

With networks and distributors offering content on multiple platforms, it looks like live sports programming will continue to pack a major punch in the television marketplace for several more rounds.

“There’s more content on cable and over-the-air broadcast networks than ever before,” FS1’s Crakes said. “I’m bullish on ring sports because I believe they are the cornerstone of live sports programming.”

The Sept. 12 Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Andre Berto fight could be bittersweet for pay-per-view distributors, as Mayweather, the category’s biggest draw, is expected to retire after the event.

While the bout for the WBC and WBA welterweight titles could draw as many as 1 million buys, according to fight distributor Showtime, the 38-yearold Mayweather last Wednesday (Sept. 2) reiterated to reporters his plans to retire after the fight during a conference call to promote the event. This week, promoters Showtime and CBS opened up a pay streaming option to add another option for potential buyers -- an unusual move for a big PPV fight.

If Mayweather does walk away from the ring after battling the 31-year-old Berto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, he would do so as the most lucrative draw in the history of the PPV category.

Mayweather led all athletes and entertainers in generating more than $870 million in PPV revenues, according to Forbes. That was before his record-setting May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao, which generated more than $400 million in PPV revenue.

“While I will leave it up to others to debate Floyd’s position among the all-time greatest boxers, I can say he is undoubtedly the all-time PPV king,” Mark Boccardi, In Demand’s senior vice president of programming and business development, said.

PPV LEGACY ASSURED

Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza has said that Saturday’s Mayweather-Berto event — which will retail for a suggested $64.95 — could draw in excess of 1 million buys, despite the relatively unknown status of former welterweight champion Berto. Espinoza said he doesn’t expect the fight to come anywhere close to the more than record 4.4 million buys generated by Mayweather-Pacquiao, though.

What Espinoza said he doesn’t have to predict is Mayweather’s legacy in the sport and the PPV category. “I don’t think that there is any question that Floyd Mayweather is the greatest PPV draw ever,” Espinoza said.

“He’s surpassed 2 million PPV buys three times,” the Showtime executive added, referring to Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez in 2013 and Mayweather-Pacquiao this year. “No other fighter has done it more than once,” Espinoza said. “He’s really separated himself from any other attraction.”

Mayweather’s appeal as a PPV draw extended beyond his in-ring exploits, Boccardi said. The fighter’s social-media appeal — Mayweather has millions of Twitter followers — as well as his appearances in entertainment-based vehicles from Dancing With the Stars to the WWE’s Wrestlemania have helped Mayweather create a brand that has transcended boxing.

“Not only is he incredibly gifted in the ring, but he’s also the sport of boxing’s first superstar in the Internet/reality-TV generation — he’s created another aura outside the ring because of the generation that we live in,” Boccardi said. “He’s a boxer that to some people is more famous for being a character on TV than a fighter, but he backs it up by being so talented in the ring.”

While Mayweather has set the template for being a successful PPV event draw, Boccardi said it won’t be easy for other up-and-coming fighters to replicate Mayweather’s success both in and out of the ring.

“The way he did it worked well with his personality, but it’s not going to work for everyone,” Boccardi said. “The old saying [that] you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole holds true here — you can’t take a guy that might be gifted in the ring but is shy and not confrontational and try to create another Mayweather.”

COULD HE ‘UNRETIRE?’

Of course, there is the potential that the industry will see Mayweather in the ring again after the Berto fight. Mayweather has retired and unretired in the past, and with a chance to build a 2016 mega PPV event around breaking legendary heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 mark in his next fight — assuming he gets by Berto — industry observers say it’s a good bet we’ll see Mayweather back in the ring.

Even Espinoza said Showtime would likely look to coax the undefeated champion back for one more go-round. Saturday’s Mayweather-Berto fight is the last bout in a six-fight PPV deal between Mayweather and Showtime.

“There’s a good amount of disbelief about Mayweather’s plans to retire, largely because he’s still operating at such a high level,” Espinoza said. “But he’s 19 years in, and that’s a long time to be a fighter, so I understand the disbelief, but I also hear in Floyd’s voice that he’s ready to call it a career.

“Having said all of that, we’re going to try, but for the time being he has said to us, don’t call me, I’ll call you for the foreseeable future.”

MultiVision Media will look to revitalize the pay-per-view concert category with this weekend’s distribution of the last three performances by the rock band The Grateful Dead.

In Demand and other PPV event providers will offer the Dead’s “Fare Thee Well” concerts from Chicago on July 3, 4 and 5, according to Brian Ricco, executive producer for MultiVision Media, which secured the PPV rights.

In addition to the three five-hour PPV events, each of which will retail at a suggested price of $29.99, Ricco said a concert preview show will also be available for viewers.

“The Grateful Dead will no longer perform after the July 5 concert in Chicago,” Ricco said. “There’s been so much publicity surrounding it that there was demand from the industry for the event.”

In Demand will support the event with free-on-demand content, including an interview with Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann as well as backstage documentary footage of the band. In addition, the concerts will reply on both VOD and PPV through Aug. 3

“Grateful Dead: Fare The Well is a significant moment in music history, which presents a unique multi-day pay-per-view opportunity for programming distributors,” said Mark Boccardi, In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development. “The iconic band’s “Fare The Well” tour has already generated an enormous amount of excitement and publicity because of the huge influence they have had on music.”

The following article is part of a special advertising section that appeared in the June 15 issue of Multichannel News.

When iN DEMAND CTO John Vartanian first joined the company in 1995, job No. 1 was to expand what was a four-channel Pay-Per-View offering to five.

The project took six months — in part because digital hadn’t really happened yet. “Back then, ‘bicycling tapes’ involved actual bicycles and tapes,” Vartanian quipped of video-on-demand’s early days.

The pace quickened. Ten years ago, it took a week to add a new title into the iN DEMAND VOD libraries; in today’s accelerating times, it takes 30 minutes. That’s good, because the company prepares and distributes 360,000 hours of VOD content every year, including 10,000 live sports events.

iN DEMAND’s technologists and partners characterize the pace of change in video — as elsewhere in digital life — as faster in the last five years, than in the 25 years prior.

 “It’s still snowballing,” said Braxton Jarratt, CEO of Clearleap, about the volume of treatments necessary for each video asset to get from iN DEMAND’s 230 different content creators to its 270 distribution affiliates. “Everybody dreams of the day there’s one big file, per asset, transcoded on the fly — but there are still 50 versions of what everyone wanted to be the version.”

That’s because these days, “content prep” involves encoding video assets every which way to serve all the screens that can display them, from smartphones to big-screen TVs.

The challenges of this kind of scale include a sea of metadata that needs to be affixed to each title, and the FCC-required closed captioning of most content. Then there’s the encryption and digital rights management, and monitoring for quality control. Content management systems, unified workflows, adaptive bit rate encoding — all are core technological components critical to iN DEMAND’s mission to provide national scale to live and on-demand video delivery.

Even the pace of the contract negotiations that are deepening iN DEMAND’s libraries is changing, Jarratt noted. “Deals are getting done faster, and the expectations about going live are intense — the door opens, and it’s, ‘OK! We’ve got a library of 5,000 titles, and we want them live in two weeks.’ ”

THE HYBRID SATELLITE/IP SHIFT

That’s why Vartanian and his team recognized that the company’s reliance on satellites for distribution needed a terrestrial companion, to slipstream into the Internet protocol-based landscape. So, in late 2013, they bifurcated their live, linear and out-of-market sports assets from their on-demand fare — keeping satellite-based delivery for live material and business continuity services, and using a fiber-based tapestry to link VOD content into the content distribution networks (CDNs) of its affiliates, and to its own cloud-based encoding and storage resources.

“It’s a combination of several different technologies,” including Clearleap’s IP-based distribution system, as well as file-transfer mechanisms and direct fiber connections to content partners and affiliates, Vartanian said.

“We’re replacing much of what had been manual workflows — for reception and cataloging of files, encoding, quality control, distribution — with automated workflows,” iN DEMAND Vice President of Technology David Ludder said. “It’s become essential for us, given the quantities of content we move.”

Even as the pace of technological change accelerates, the goal remains the same, Ludder said: To get as much content out, delivered once, correctly. “So, though the technology changes — our need to make sure the content is correct, and meets the needs of our affiliates and their different platforms — always comes first.”

That includes the next potential wave of new content — 4K, the next chapter in high-definition programming. Getting ready involves evaluating the HEVC (high-efficiency video codec) compressors that will make those very big video assets distributable, while identifying ways to competitively arm its affiliates to harness other characteristics of UltraHD, such as high dynamic range (HDR).

“We’re starting to look at that,” Vartanian said.

Another perennially large challenge for the iN DEMAND tech team is metadata management. “Metadata changes frequently, and needs to be made customizable to our affiliates,” iN DEMAND Director of VOD Technology R.J. Vilardi said. “It’s an area that’s constantly growing, constantly getting more complex — most people would rather somebody else deal with it. Like us.”

THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE

Technologists across the industry pin the company’s successes to its core technology team, led by Vartanian.

“John is a pioneer and a leader in video distribution and content delivery, and helped us to evolve from analog, to digital, to IP,” said Tony Werner, CTO of Comcast. “He’s a cornerstone of this industry — he consistently moves the state of the art forward.”

“They’re the best I’ve ever worked with,” Clearleap’s Jarratt said of the iN DEMAND engineering team. “A lot of people hit roadblocks when they’re experienced in traditional broadcast engineering, and have to cut over to the brave, new Internet world — not in this case. They’re pros.”

Music Choice, which moves 1,000 or more videos through the iN DEMAND tapestry to affiliate headends every week, said that its partnership with the company lets the music-content provider focus on its core business. “Their intimate knowledge of the equipment and systems that reside at the nation’s headends allows us to extract ourselves away from mountains of details,” Mikel McCrackan, Vice President of Engineering and Operations, said.

“We used to pitch [titles] directly to a lot of operators, as well as going through iN DEMAND,” Music Choice Director of Product Development Erica Librach said. “They’ve organized it and managed it so well, we’re now transitioning to move everything through them.”

IN DEMAND’s TECH PAYLOADS
A look at how iN DEMAND’s content volume and delivery methods have grown since a decade ago:

Live Sports
2005: 4,500 Games (SD)
2014: 10,000 Games (90% HD)

Transactional Movies-On-Demand Assets Per Year
2005: 1,200
2014: 26,000

Video Encoding Formats
2005: 2
2014: More than 10

VOD Delivery Speed
2005: 8 Mbps
2014: More than 1 Gbps

Active VOD inventory
2005: 3 Terabytes
2014: 2.3 Petabytes

Acquisition Formats
2005: Videotape (Digibeta)
2014: More than 12 digital formats

SOURCE: iN DEMAND

As  video on demand and TV Everywhere services continue to make gains with consumers, their development -- and ongoing battle with OTT services -- is still in the first game of a doubleheader, with many technological and content advances still to come, industry executives speaking at the On Demand Summit Tuesday (June 9) said.

TV Everywhere continues to make strides, with more than 55% of consumers recognizing and using TV Everywhere services from cable networks, according to CTAM president and CEO John Lansing. While more than 90 networks are offering TV Everywhere services on a subscriber-authenticated basis, Lansing said creating a cohesive, TV Everywhere message remains a challenge.

“The biggest limitation is that TV Everywhere is not a consumer-facing brand,” Lansing said. “To communicate the value of the product without a single handle to the consumer is the biggest challenge.”

On the VOD front, In Demand president and CEO Bob Benya said consumers have access to more than 360,000 hours of movies and specialty content a year through on demand platforms. He added that In Demand's VOD movie offerings are the top choice for consumers in viewing on demand movies, with its cable affiliates generating a 37% share of paid movie orders compared with 20% for satellite services and 14% for telcos.

“With all of the diversity and depth of [on demand] content … it’s been really exciting to see how much growth there’s been on the content side,” Benya said.

Both Benya and Lansing acknowledged the consumer appeal of OTT services – particularly to young millennials – but added that as more content providers offer stand-alone, over-the-top services, the value proposition of the traditional cable bundle will grow.

“OTT services don’t have big events, live sports, ... last night’s episode [of a series],” Lansing said.  

Benya added, "While there is a lot of noise about over the top services … cable and the other MVPD’s are doing very well.”

As for the future, the executives said the industry needs a better way to measure how viewers are watching content on multiple platforms, and the on-screen interface for on-demand content needs to become easier for consumers to navigate.

Lansing added that the industry should find ways of including independently produced short-form content, which is often favored by millennial viewers.

“I think that’s a category of content that as an industry we need to understand how to get involved in that as well,” he said. “I think we’re reaching the ninth inning of this game pretty quickly, but it's understanding the second game that will be really important.”

Widening its reach ahead of the Academy Awards on Sunday night, The Short Movie Channel is releasing "The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2015" across an array of cable, satellite and on-demand platforms.

The program, commemorating the 10th anniversary of Oscar short releases in theaters in the U.S. Latin Ameriica and Europe,  will showcase the live-action and animation film nominees, ahead of the  87th Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 22, 2015 on ABC, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

Through a deal with In Demand,  Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, Bright House, RCN, Charter, Metrocast, and Mid Continent will offer the shorts, as will DirecTV, AT&T U-verse, iTunes, Amazon and Vimeo. ShortsHD, the first high-definition channel dedicated to short movies, has regular carriage on  DirecTV (channel 573), AT&T U-Verse (1789), US Sonet  (292), CenturyLink prism (1789) and Frontier Communications (1789).

"The short film nominees this year come from some of the most diverse backgrounds of any similar group of Academy nominees, which is reflected in the richness and diversity of their storytelling,” said ShortsHD CEO Carter Pilcher.  “We are proud to bring them to the cable systems, VOD, EST and the all of the leading digital platforms for audiences everywhere.”

This year’s Oscar-nominated shorts originate from Poland, UK, US, France, China, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands and Mexico.

Releases include the following nominated short films:

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM NOMINEES

Aya

Directors: Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis

Synopsis: A young woman waiting at an airport has an unexpected encounter with an arriving passenger.

Countries of origin: France, Israel

TRT: 39:50

Language: English

Boogaloo and Graham

Directors: Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney

Synopsis: Jamesy and Malachy are presented with two baby chicks to raise by their soft-hearted father.

Country of origin: UK

TRT: 14:00

Language: English

Butter Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak)

Directors: Hu Wei and Julien Féret

Synopsis: A photographer and his assistant photograph the inhabitants of a remote Tibetan village.

Countries of origin: France, China

TRT: 15:54

Language: Chinese

Parvaneh

Directors: Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger

Synopsis: An Afghan teenager living in a refugee center in Switzerland encounters difficulties wiring money to her family and asks a young Swiss woman for help.

Country of origin: Switzerland

TRT: 24:26

Language: German

The Phone Call

Directors: Mat Kirkby and James Lucas

Synopsis: A woman working for a crisis center phone line receives a call from a suicidal older man.

Country of origin: UK

TRT: 20:56

Language: English

ANIMATED SHORT FILM NOMINEES

The Bigger Picture

Directors: Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees

Synopsis: Tensions arise between two brothers as their elderly mother requires more care.

Country of origin: UK

TRT: 7:27

Language: English

The Dam Keeper

Directors: Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi

Synopsis: A lonely little pig in charge of maintaining the town dam is cruelly bullied by his classmates.

Country of origin: US

TRT: 18:08

Language: English

Feast

Director: Patrick Osborne

Producer: Kristina Reed

Synopsis: The story of the relationship between a young man and the stray puppy he takes in is told through the food the dog receives.

Country of origin: US

TRT: 7:00

Language: English

Me and My Moulton

Director: Torill Kove

Synopsis: Three sisters growing up in an unconventional Norwegian family ask their parents for a bicycle.

Country of origin: Canada

TRT: 13:08

Language: English

A Single Life

Director: Joris Oprins

Synopsis: A mysterious vinyl single gives a young woman the power to move back and forth through the years of her life.

Country of origin: Netherlands

TRT: 2:18

Language: English

Embattled executive Amy Pascal is stepping down as co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and chairman of SPE Motion Picture Goup. Her departure comes in the wake of the computer hack perpetrated against Sony ahead of the premiere of the feature film The Interview and the subsequent release of leaked emails, executive salaries and other confidential studio information.

Pascal will officially vacate her current position in May and launch an independent production venture based at Sony.

Although Pascal had oversight of Sony Pictures Television, her focus was directed on Sony’s film business. She had been with the company since 1988, when she joined the staff of Columbia Pictures. Recent films produced under Pascal include Skyfall, The Amazing Spider-Man, Zero Dark Thirty and The Social Network.

Many of Pascal’s emails were among those leaked to the public in December after an attack against the studio’s computer systems believed to have been perpetrated by hackers working for the North Korean government, which was lampooned in the Sony film The Interview. Several emails in which Pascal wrote derisively of talent such as Angelina Jolie and Adam Sandler were among those leaked, as was an email exchange in which Pascal and producer Scott Rudin made racist jokes about President Obama’s taste in movies.

Bowing to threats of violence against theaters and potential patrons and caught amidst the hacking scandal that embarassed the studio, the movie became available online through Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft’s Xbox Video and iTunes and the dedicated website www.seetheinterview.com on Christmas Eve.

The film opened to some 300 theaters on Christmas Day, a far cry from the 2,500 or more that were expected to be in play before things ran afoul. It subsequently ran in more independent theaters and then subsequently became available via In Demand, Netflix and Sony's Crackle OTT service

Read more at B&Chere.

Many industry observers are speculating that the holiday-weekend digital distribution of Sony’s controversial movie The Interview will build momentum toward the release of big-ticket movies on digital video-on-demand platforms at the same time as the film’s theatrical release.

Sony on Dec. 28 reported that the movie drew 2 million downloads and $15 million from digital sales on YouTube, Google Play, Xbox Video and Sony’s SeeTheInterview.com standalone site since its Dec. 24 digital release. Sony said The Interview has already generated more revenue than any other studio digital release, but that statement requires an asterisk.

First, the movie was distributed under unprecedented circumstances. The Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy, which portrays the assassination of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un by two TV personalities — and North Korea’s alleged digital hacking of Sony’s servers that superseded the release — created a phenomenon that is unlikely to be replicated again. The news coverage surrounding the film combined with a curiosity factor among consumers afforded The Interview with awareness and publicity that no other film is likely to receive.

Second, the film was only released in 331 independent movie theaters after hackers threatened those exhibitors distributing the film. It’s unclear that the studio’s digital performance would have been as robust had the movie been fully distributed theatrically, as intended.

Still, a $15 million take from digital distributors under any circumstance is nothing to sneeze at, especially since it didn’t include traditional cable video-on-demand revenue. In Demand and other VOD distributors did not strike a deal to pick up the film until Dec. 31.

Many independent film distributors are already offering movie titles on digital VOD at the same time or before a film’s theatrical release. In August, Netflix will stream the much-anticipated sequel to 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, simultaneously with its release in IMAX theaters.

While The Interview may or may not turn out to be the panacea that the digital VOD industry is expecting, it’s clear the movie’s digital performance has opened some eyes in the film industry. Time will tell if The Interview will sure the major film distributors to experiment with day-and-date digital/theatrical releases of big-budget movies in the near future.

In Demand will offer its cable operator affiliates a free, eight-day preview of the NBA League Pass out-of-market live game package beginning tonight (Oct. 8).

The preview, which runs from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4 will include access to all live regular season NBA games during the preview period.

Overall NBA League Pass, which retails for suggested price of $199, will offer 40 live out-of-market games per week across 10 channels during the 2014-15 NBA regular season.

Consumers purchasing NBA League Pass will also have access to live games via NBA.com and mobile devices, as well as several new alternative distribution platforms including Microsoft’s XBOX One video game console, the Amazon Fire digital player, Samsung Smart TV’s and select Sony Blu-ray players, said NBA officials.

The mobile offering will also feature a library of classic NBA games dating back to the 1960s, but heavily weighted toward memorable games played during the 1990s and 2000s, said the league.