On Saturday ESPN and boxing promotion company Top Rank Inc. will distribute the Terence Crawford-Amir Khan welterweight championship pay-per-view boxing match, their first co-promoted PPV boxing event since the two companies reached an exclusive, seven-year distribution deal.

The fight, which has a suggested retail price of $69.95, is getting a major marketing boost from ESPN’s sister company Marvel Entertainment. Earlier this week ESPN released a 30-second spot that ties in the PPV fight with Marvel's blockbuster film Avengers: End Game, which premieres next Thursday (April 25).

ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions Matt Kenny recently spoke to me about the significance of the Crawford-Khan PPV event for ESPN and Top Rank as well as the fight’s big Avengers promotional tie-in.

Why do you feel pay-per-view is the right distribution platform for the Crawford-Khan fight?

When you think of the best pound for pound boxers in boxing, Terence Crawford is right at the top of that list. We’re couldn’t be more pleased about our partnership with Top Rank, and as we looked at the [boxing] landscape we thought this would be an appropriate time to do our first pay-per-view together. We felt that Terence and Amir would be the perfect main event for our first foray under this new deal.

The PPV category recently lost a number of marquee fighters to upstart sports streaming services. Is the platform still a viable outlet for big PPV boxing events?

Absolutely. We’ve heard feedback from distributors that boxing is still very much a strong performer in the pay-per-view space. At the end of the day, people are interested in big events, and PPV boxing has historically fallen into that category. We feel really confident heading into this weekend that Crawford and Khan are not only going to put on a great main event, but the undercard is stacked as well. We really think boxing fans are going to get alot of bang for their buck this weekend.

Is ESPN and Top Rank doing anything outside of traditional PPV marketing tactics for this fight?

WE could not be more proud of how ESPN and the Walt Disney Company have embraced this event and put forth a promotion that the industry hasn’t seen before. I think really the biggest example that we could point to is a co-promotion spot that just hit social media that features Crawford and Khan in a co-promotional piece with the theatrical release of Avengers: End Game next week. When you think about that, Avengers End Game is arguably going to be the largest theatrical release in movie history, and for us to be able to leverage that intellectual property to create an even bigger event feel for Crawford-Khan is something that none of the streaming services or our competitors can do.

Will ESPN and Top Rank look to distribute more pay-per-view boxing events this year?

We’re going to be incredibly opportunistic … I think that’s the best way to describe it. We are interested in putting on the best fights for boxing fans and want to be part of the [PPV] conversation, so we’re open for business and interested in putting the best fights forward. We’re really in the early stages of our long term deal (with Top Rank), and to have had [lightweight champion] Vasyl Lomachenko on ESPN+ last Friday and Crawford on pay-per-view this Saturday, we think we’re really helping to elevate boxing as a whole and to establish ESPN’s leadership position in the space. 

Netflix has renewed its latest Marvel Comics-based series The Punisher for a second season, the streaming service said Tuesday. 

Netflix, which announced the renewal of the series via social media, did not provide a launch date for the sophomore campaign of the series, which stars Jon Bernthal as crime fighting vigilante Frank Castle.

After exacting revenge on those responsible for the death of his wife and children, Castle in the second season uncovers a conspiracy that runs far deeper than New York’s criminal underworld, according to the streaming service.

Netflix launched the freshman season of Marvel's The Punisher on Nov. 17.

Time to reload. #ThePunisher Season 2 is coming. pic.twitter.com/J76ksLfDqx

— The Punisher (@ThePunisher) December 12, 2017

The Thanksgiving holiday typically marks a respite from the launch of new scripted shows, providing an opportunity for viewers to catch up on all the series that premiered during this year's fall TV season.

Video streaming servies Hulu and Netlfix are bucking the trend, premiering new, high-profile series during a period where football games, movie marathons and holiday fare dominate the television schedule.

Yesterday (Nov. 22) Hulu stepped into the Marvel Comics universe for the first time with the launch of Marvel’s Runaways, which centers on six diverse teenagers who come together to battle a dark and powerful foe – their own evil, supernatural-driven parents.

Today, (Nov, 23) Netflix resurrects the western genre with the debut of the Steven Soderbergh-produced series Godless. The seven-episode series follows a former outlaw on the run from a ruthless gang who finds refuge in a quiet mining town populated only by women.

On Thursday after Thanksgiving dinner, viewers can binge view Netflix’s series reboot of Spike Lee’s 1986 film She’s Gotta Have It. The 10-episode show takes the story of young, independently-minded and strong-willed artist Nola Darling and modernizes it for a new generation of viewers.  

With more than 450 scripted series offered this year, not even the Thanksgiving holiday is exempt from serving up a healthy dish of new, scripted content.  

Emmy Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard stars in the upcoming Netflix original series Marvel’s Luke Cage, premiering on the streaming service this Friday (Sept. 30).

Woodard, who plays New York City politician Mariah Stokes in the superhero-themed drama series, has won four primetime Emmy Awards over a more than 30-year television career for her roles in Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, The Practice and HBO’s original movie Miss Evers’ Boys.

I recently spoke to Woodard, who will also appear in Netflix’s upcoming series A Series of Unfortunate Events alongside Neil Patrick Harris, about her role in Luke Cage as well as her thoughts on the increased opportunities that cable and video streaming services are providing actors in today’s evolving television landscape.

Related:New Trailer for Netflix's 'Marvel's Luke Cage'

R. Thomas Umstead: Talk to me about your role in Luke Cage.

Alfre Woodard: My character has heard about super-enhanced people in New York, and the thing is as a person in power I know that if I can’t control them I’ll have to shut them down. I want to meet Luke Cage because I can use him towards my end – I want to make a difference in the city and I want to change things in the city. So if I can’t fight Luke Cage, I better well figure out how to get him to help me.

RTU: How did you come about starring in a superhero-themed series on Netflix?

AW: [Luke Cage creator/executive producer Cheo Hodari Coker] asked me. When he would talk about the Marvel Universe and Harlem, I saw his love and respect for the depth of history and culture, and also for the Marvel universe. I always like to work with people who are passionate and light up about a project.

RTU: From your perspective as a veteran actress, is this the best time to be in the television business?

AW: I would say so because certainly I think cinema has abandoned the American actor. When filmmakers are real storytellers, then you need parts of speech like the actor, the sound person and all of those disciplines to tell a story. But if your story is just visuals and special effects, you need a human in there occasionally but not necessarily and actor to do that. So a lot of [actors] are coming to television. If it were just the [broadcast] networks, you would try to tell these big world stories using only four or five notes on the scale. Cable and streaming gives the opportunity to be able to tell whatever stories you want to tell. So I think that it has increased the need for actors, and also its given the actors an opportunity to be the virtuosos that they are.