ITV have secured a broadcasting licence for 'ITV Box Office'
Are they about to go into PPV?

Maybe its for sports?

...or maybe a film channel?

If it is a film channel, the use of this term by Sky will mean many people will associate it with PPV though.

I doubt that this will be a joint enterprise with Sky (as ITV have done in the past) as i'm sure they wouldn't have agreed to the name.

Rumours circulated in the boxing world about 3-4 months ago that ITV were looking at a boxing deal with FTA fights on ITV4 and PPV fights on a "box office" style channel. They were mainly discarded due to the lack of a viable UK based Promoter to take on a contract, but perhaps they were genuine?

Edit - Here's an article from the Daily Mail about it at the time http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/box...-new-deal.html

I doubt it would be for films as Sky have the vast majority of first run box office/film rights tied up.

Boxing is a possibility although I'm not entirely who would fight on there unless Frank Warren is thinking of shutting Boxnation down and going down the terrestrial TV/PPV route.

I didn't know that, interesting read, thanks!

I agree, i don't think it will be for Films as Sky have them locked up pretty tidily but more than likely, sport.


No chance! He has invested too much money in it and it does pretty well, contrary to claims by some

ITV Box office schedule.


Skyfall- James Bond film.

Skyfall- James Bond film.

Skyfall- James Bond film.

Skyfall- James Bond film.

Bridget Jones diary.

Skyfall- James Bond film.

No Shawshank Redemption??

Does it though? It's lost money for years and is basically sustained by Frank Warren and Bill Ives. The big problem Warren has is the lack of free promotion that Hearn gets through his Sky tieup. As such, his events rarely sell out. Putting domestic matchups where the purses are relatively low out on terrestrial would be a good way of boosting audiences and attendance.

US boxing promoter Al Haymon who has a few British world title holders in his stable (James Degale, Lee Selby) will more than likely be utilising this.

He has a massive stable in the US and is pushing Premier Boxing Championship to be completely FTA. Perhaps something similar is in the offing for the UK.

Both promoted by and contracted to Matchroom, who have an exclusive deal with Sky!
Not a chance!!

What about Love Actually and Harry flaming Potter. At least some of the old Bonds are decent movies.

And back to the future part two....

It must refer to boxing, the Sky Box Office film channels have largely been superseded by Sky Store.

SKY have the majority of the studios tied up to their Movie subscription service between 6-12 months but their SKY Store Day and Date download/DVD is available on day one to a number of players including Amazon and Apple.

ITV have been hinting at an online pay per view service for older content - could this be it?

That's not to say that Matchroom fighters can't fight on other networks if the money is right though, they've had fighters (John Ryder springs to mind) who have fought on Boxnation before and Warren has had a few of his fighters fight on Sky Sports. Hearn will still receive his promoters fee percentage of his fighters purse.

Hearn did hint this week that Sky didn't see the potential Frampton (also a PBC fighter - as well as a cyclone fighter who is separate to their deal with channel 5) v Selby matchup as a PPV fight but that wasn't to say that other networks wouldn't!

Not forgetting the Jason Bourne films. And The Holiday. And the Rambo trilogy.

They are not. Selby definitely isnt but their fights are shown on Sky.

Everyone saying it wouldn’t be a film channel is assuming it would be a PPV or Premium service...
Why couldn’t it be a film channel making use of their existing catalogue of films – sort of like an ITV version of Film4?

I agree that ‘Box Office’ makes it sound like a PPV service, but that’s only become we’ve become accustomed to the Sky Box Office brand. The ‘Box Office’ name could easily be used for a FTA or basic subscription film channel. And to me I associate ‘Box Office’ with films, not sport. It if was going to be a sports channel I wouldn’t use the words ‘Box Office’ but maybe that’s juts me...

i wouldn't pay for ITV if it was a hooker with amazing body and mouth skills

I wouldn't pay for the crap on ITV or BBC or even Sky for that matter. But one I don't have any option.

I have gone nearly 2 months now without watching a single UK programme.

Thanks for telling us this amazing fact. Will you soon enter the Guinness Book of World Records?

Don't forget BBC is going to start Britflix soon, perhaps ITV want their own service.

It was supposed to be considered some years ago but advertisers weren't keen on the idea.