Lou DiBella is renowned in the boxing world for leading the transformation of HBO into the most influential corporate player in the sport in the 1990s.
The Brooklyn native spearheaded the pay-per-view model alongside HBO colleagues Seth Abraham, Ross Greenburg, Mark Taffet.
When he left the broadcaster in 2000 to start his own boxing promotion, DiBella Entertainment, he left with his colleagues’ blessing and their funding, and has since gone on to cement his position as one of the most authoritative voices in the world of boxing.
In this short video, recorded behind the scenes at The Sport Business Summit during Leaders Week New York this year, DiBella reflects on what he considers as the finest achievement of his career: masterminding HBO’s ‘Boxing After Dark’ series, which helped build a surge of popularity for boxing in the US in across the 1990s, providing a platform for a legion of fighters who weren’t already considered stars.
DiBella explains:
- How he fought for the idea despite the negativity of some of his colleagues;
- The obstacles he encountered along the way;
- His views on boxing programming today, DAZN’s bold play in broadcasting the sport in the US, and how he says the OTT broadcaster’s model playing out.
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DiBella speaking alongside Joe Markowski of DAZN and Stephen Espinoza of Showtime Sports during the Leaders Sport Business Summit 2019 at the TimeCenter on May 2019, New York.
