LiveOne inks boxing deal

LiveOne just bought itself a lot more than boxing matches. The company said on April 10 it will exclusively stream more than 60 Team Boxing League events in over 200 countries through June 12, 2026, which gives it a steady flow of live inventory instead of a one-night pay-per-view spike. (globenewswire.com) That matters because LiveOne is not a traditional TV network built around one sport. Its investor materials describe a business built from music streaming, podcasting, video, and pay-per-view, with PodcastOne alone generating more than 2.38 billion downloads per year. (ir.livexlive.com) A platform like that wants programming that shows up every week and can be chopped into different products. Team Boxing League says its season runs from March through August with 12 teams and 56 events before the playoffs, which looks a lot more like a regular sports schedule than a typical boxing calendar. (teamboxingleague.com) The league is also built to move faster than standard boxing cards. Team Boxing League says each match has 24 separate three-minute rounds, with two teams piling up points across the night instead of one headline bout carrying the whole show. (teamboxingleague.com) That format gives LiveOne more things to sell than a single main event. In its announcement, the company explicitly listed subscriptions, advertising, sponsorships, and pay-per-view as revenue paths tied to this package. (globenewswire.com) The company has been looking for exactly that kind of repeatable media product. LiveOne reported fiscal 2025 revenue guidance of $120 million to $135 million in November 2024, and its audio division was already contributing $63.3 million in year-to-date revenue at that point, so live sports can be plugged into a business that already knows how to sell ads and subscriptions. (ir.livexlive.com) Team Boxing League gets something different out of the deal: reach. LiveOne said the events will be available in more than 200 countries, which is far wider distribution than a young boxing property usually gets when it is still trying to teach fans its format. (globenewswire.com) The league has been trying to stand out by changing boxing’s usual structure. Its own description calls it the first team-based professional boxing league, says men and women compete side by side, and says coaches can bring fighters back in later “money rounds,” which turns a fight card into something closer to a relay race with substitutions. (teamboxingleague.com) So this is not just a rights deal for one niche combat sport. It is a bet that a company with music apps, podcasts, connected-TV distribution, and pay-per-view tools can make a season-long boxing product worth more by selling the same event in several ways at once. (ir.livexlive.com)