By Jordan Moskowitz
Showtime Sports head Stephen Espinoza was ecstatic over the pay-per-view figures that were released on Tuesday for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, which took place on May 2nd from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Showtime, and network rival HBO, came together to broadcast what was billed as the 'Fight of The Century.'
The fight did more than 4.4 million U.S. buys and $400 million in domestic PPV profits.
The event is also expected to make more than $500 million in gross worldwide receipts, after revenue from the live gate, international television distribution, sponsorships, closed circuit and merchandise sales are added up.
“The event really snowballed beyond what anyone could predict,” Espinoza said. “The event really exceeded the expectations of everyone involved. We didn’t really have a clear idea and during fight week of how big it would be, we were dealing with numbers that were truly unprecedented in terms of the advanced pay-per-view buys."
"We knew it was big and bigger than anything anyone had seen before but we didn’t know it meant three million or three and a half million, or perhaps even more buys. So it wasn’t until we got some of the early numbers, late Saturday afternoon, late Sunday afternoon, from the systems that we were able to tabulate things that quickly that we really got a sense of how things had ballooned out of control and I think the other indication was during the broadcast when we started receiving word from our distributors that the volume of calls was nearly overwhelming some of the call centers and the systems, that was a call that no one had ever gotten.”
