In an effort to reach as many people as possible, Showtime is offering a free preview weekend starting this Saturday, January 16 through Monday, January 18. Part of the reason for the free preview is to get viewers to sample the series premieres of “Billions” starring Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti and the political series “The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, another is for Showtime’s other series, “Shameless.”
But another potential attraction is for boxing fans. This Saturday, Showtime Championship Boxing will have two heavyweight championship fights, WBC Champion Deontay Wilder will defend his title against challenger Artur Szpilka, and Charles Martin will fight Vyacheslav Glazkov for the vacant IBF belt.
The fights will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, the first heavyweight title fights there since 1900! But the real news here is that Showtime will not just be offering these bouts on television, but also on YouTube. This means that you will not have to login with your cable or satellite account watch, you can watch it for free online and you won’t have to go to Periscope to see the fight through someone’s phone pointed at a living room TV.
This marks the first time in boxing history that championship fights will be streamed live on its YouTube page and various sites will have the ability to embed the video so they can show them live on their portals.
It’s another way for Showtime to reach fans who normally would not have access to the fights and to attract potential new subscribers. Showtime is accessible on TV, online through its Showtime Anytime app which is available to cable and satellite subscribers or the Showtime standalone app.
If Showtime can gain new subscribers through the YouTube experiments or finds a lot of people viewing online, perhaps we could see more fights there in the future.
