Floyd Mayweather's bout with Manny Pacquiao set to be screened on Sky after broadcasters beat BoxNation to mega-fight
Sky had been in fierce competition from Frank Warren’s BoxNation channel but are believed to be on the brink of clinching British broadcasting rights
Warren is understood to have offered the higher upfront fee of guaranteed payment
But Sky are thought to have prevailed by offering the promoters a share of their pay-per-view revenue in addition
It remains to be seen if they need to mark another first by raising the pay-per-view cost to their subscribers through their psychological £20 barrier
Sky Sports are expected to be declared the winners of the bidding war for the right to the mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Sky has been in fierce competition from Frank Warren’s BoxNation channel but are believed to be on the brink of clinching the British broadcasting rights for the richest fight in ring history
Warren is understood to have offered the higher upfront fee of guaranteed payment.
However, Sky are thought to have prevailed by offering the promoters a share of their pay-per-view revenue in addition.
That represents a break from tradition for Sky, who normally keep the UK revenue.
It remains to be seen if they need to mark another first by raising the pay-per-view cost to their subscribers through their psychological £20 barrier.
Box Nation had been expecting to add up to two million extra regular viewers to their £12 per-month subscribers.
Sky will certainly need to break the pay-per-view record of 1.2m viewers here for Ricky Hatton’s crushing defeat by Mayweather in 2007.
Those numbers suggest that Sky will have guaranteed in excess of £10m.
US networks HBO and Showtime are sharing the broadcast in America, where Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is predicting a record-shattering four million buys.
If he is right, at $99.95, then the evening of May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is set up to become the half a billion dollar fight.
