Epix makes its initial foray into the boxing business on Saturday with heavyweight beltholder Vitali Klitschko’s title defense against Odlanier Solis.
Mark Greenberg, president of Epix, hopes boxing will help the network attract subscribers the way the sport did for potential rivals HBO and Showtime in the 1980s and 1990s.
“We’re really thrilled to be able to put this fight on this weekend,” Greenberg said in a recent conference call with boxing media. “The heavyweights have always drawn the casual sports fans, and for Epix, that only launched 15 months ago, this became a great opportunity to explore the boxing world.”
Greenberg, a former HBO marketing executive who spent many years with Showtime when the network’s sports programming was led by Mike Tyson, believes Epix and boxing could have an on-going mutually beneficial relationship.
“We think we have an opportunity to help breath some life into sports, especially boxing and mixed martial arts,” Greenberg said. “We’ll see how this fight does for us. It’s been a great promotional device to get the Epix brand out.”
Source: http://ringtv.craveonline.com
I think it's a very good thing that boxing is coming back. I work for Dish Network and I am really glad Dish is one of the few carriers that decided to pick up the EPIX channel. The good news for the people who have DirecTV is that EPIX will be streaming the fight free this weekend. It's really unfortunate that DirecTV decided not to carry the EPIX channel.
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