Low PPV Take-Up Expected

A Videotron spokesman has told Newsline that Saturday night’s Pay-Per-View event, the fight between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield on Sky Sports, is expected to attract around half the audience that the Bruno Tyson fight did in March * BSkyB Claims Pay-Per-View Success due to the lack of a ‘British interest’ in the fighters. Even so, this would give a figure of around 300,000 households and with each one paying at least £9.95 most cable companies are finding this revenue too tempting to pass up.

Videotron did not screen the last PPV fight because of technical problems and the fact that it did not know how customers would respond to paying more money on top of that already paid for a Sky Sports subscription. This opinion has now changed however due to the success of that event.

Nynex, who did show the first PPV and had an 18% take-up, will also be screening the fight and have even developed some new technology to make paying easier. The company will be offering customers living in twelve of its sixteen UK franchises the chance to order the fight on an “Impulse PPV” basis. This facility means that they will be able to request the event and any future events by simply pushing buttons on their remote control. Nynex hopes that this facility will be rolled out to the other four franchises by January.

The price of Saturday night’s action is the same as the Bruno Tyson clash: £9.95 up until midnight tonight and then £14.95 thereafter.

* MediaTel subscribers only

BSkyB: 0171 705 3000

Videotron: 01703 315000

Nynex Cablecomms: 0181 873 2000