Fans in the UK who want to catch Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor on Sky Sports Box Office won’t have to fork over $100 to watch it on PPV.
Television rights in the United Kingdom have been sorted out for Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor. Unsurprisingly, pay-per-view rights were won by Sky Sports, who will broadcast the August 26th mega-event on its Box Office channel.
From the network’s official press release on Monday:
Sky Sports Box Office will show the hugely anticipated fight between undefeated former world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather and current UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
The event sees the two worlds of professional boxing and UFC colliding at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on August 26, and will be available to Sky customers on Sky Sports Box Office for £19.95 in the UK and €24.95 for Republic of Ireland.
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The cost of the event will be £19.95 / €24.95 across all forms of booking up until midnight Friday 25 August. From then on the cost will still be £19.95 / €24.95 if bookings are made via remote control and online, but will cost £24.95 / €29.95 if booked via the phone. Please note an additional £2 / €2 booking fee still applies if bookings are made via a telephone agent. Cable customers please contact your operator for booking information.
Based off the current exchange rate, £19.95 is just a little bit over $26 in US dollars. You don’t need to be a mathematician to figure out that it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the $99.95 HD/$89.95 SD cost for Americans to buy the event on Showtime PPV. The Republic of Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom and uses the Euro, so Irish viewers can purchase the event for about $30 US.
You may be inclined to belief that the lower PPV cost is also down to the major time zone difference, which would put the main event on at about 4-5 AM in the UK and Ireland, but pay-per-view events are substantially cheaper across the pond. Mayweather’s superfight with Manny Pacquiao was also £19.95, as well as Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko, andthey’re now equaled by Mayweather vs. McGregor as the highest-priced PPV in UK history. Recent British-based bouts, including Carl Froch vs. George Groves II, David Haye vs. Tony Bellew, and Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr were £16.95.
The UK PPV record was recently set by Joshua vs. Klitschko, which reportedly exceeded 1.5 million buys.