It’s official: Showtime’s Paramount+-infused future will not include sports. Paramount is shutting down Showtime Sports at the end of the year, allowing them to finish their commitments after nearly 38 years running.
Paramount Global released the following statement: "As we evolve our strategy to more efficiently allocate resources and align our content offering across the business, we've made the difficult decision not to move forward with boxing and other content produced by the Showtime sports team. Showtime will continue to air and support the remaining 2023 boxing slate and honor obligations through the end of the year." Layoffs will be happening, including the division’s president, Stephen Espinoza, who had held the position since 2011.
Espinoza also released his own statement that read in part, "The company’s decision is not a reflection of the work we have done in recent years, nor of our long and proud history. Unfortunately, in a rapidly evolving media marketplace, the company has had to make difficult choices allocating resources, resetting priorities and reshaping its content offering.”
The end of Showtime Sports also means the end of their documentaries and digital programming, along with the Showtime Basketball brand. The culprit is that in forming modern Paramount through the remerger of Viacom and CBS, the company already has CBS Sports, which produces content for broadcast, cable, and Paramount+ streaming. Should Showtime continue to carry any sports, the broadcasts will will be produced by CBS Sports. It will also be CBS Sports who produce the documentaries Showtime will still likely air over the next several years.
After longtime CEO David Nevins departed the network a year ago, it was put under the jurisdiction of Chris McCarthy, who merged it with MTV Entertainment Studios, sent it down the rebrand path as the OTT has already rebranded and the linear channel is headed that way with an overhauled programming strategy. Nevins was big on the network’s sports efforts, which climaxed in the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. 2019 bout.
Showtime Sports launched in March 1986 with the Marvin Hagler-John Mugabi fight and quickly became known for its boxing slate. Showtime and HBO were as much competitors in sports as they were for movies and original programming, vying for decades to carry the top boxing matches. Showtime Sports broadcast 2,000 fights, including Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield and Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao. The brand did more than boxing, being the home of Inside the NFL from 2008-2021 and MMA matches from Strikeforce, EliteXC and Bellator, which Paramount still owns but has been looking to sell. HBO had exited boxing in 2018, as both networks struggled with the cost of continuing sports programming at the same time their respective parent companies focused their investments on streaming.
Sources: Sports Business Journal, Deadline
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