From the time the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao megafight was announced, many in boxing and the broader TV industry wondered how producers HBO and Showtime would co-exist. Not only are the networks business rivals, but their operations have taken dramatically different approaches to PPV marketing. “It was a more intricate and complicated process than I expected, but it’s also largely been a more collegial one than I expected,” said Showtime Sports Exec VP & GM Stephen Espinoza. “Not that I was expecting conflict. But these are two different companies who are competitors in the market with a lot of very talented and intelligent people working for them, and there’s a lot to patch together in a short period of time. And I can say, looking back and looking forward, that it’s gone smoother than I would have hoped in my greatest optimism.” HBO Sports VP & GM Tammy Ross echoed that opinion, pointing to the compressed execution window as an unexpected benefit. “It actually forced everybody to roll up their sleeves quicker and put any egos aside,” Ross said. “From my perspective it has gone swimmingly. When you have the unified interest that we had between the fighter camps and networks to cut through the competitive issues and really get down to business, there was not one area of conflict.” There certainly was the potential for some, especially around the necessary negotiation to determine how to combine network talent on shows that would be jointly produced and co-branded. Espinoza also pointed to differences in content philosophy -- not only in terms of what to create but how to deliver it -- as well as digital strategies and the timing of the marketing. “It became abundantly clear, very quickly, that we had very stark differences,” Espinoza said. “But in this case, they’re not mutually exclusive. The good thing is, we’re actually utilizing both approaches and getting the benefit of both strategies. So we don’t really even have to argue about whose strategy is better, because we’re in most cases utilizing both.”
