Why Thrilla In Manilla and Clash On The Dunes Represented Significant Turning Points In The Evolution Of TV 

Last night I attended The Clash On The Dunes fight with 15,000 other spectators on the purpose-built arena in the historic district of Diriyah last night where Anthony Joshua defeated Andy Ruiz Jnr to retain his title as Heavyweight Champion of the world. There were many more watching the fight online and on box office.

In the sixties in the US, companies like TCI and Teleprompter spend years setting up power cables in towns across the states. Once the service was in place, the TV channels followers. In 1975, HBO – Home Box Office, launched with the Thrilla In Manilla as the first broadcast. The quality was so good, it took off from there. 

But people didn’t necessarily take cable seriously. Ted Turner’s CNN was labelled the Chicken Noodle Network.

• In 1978 cable was in 19% of American homes (after 30 years of building blocks)
• From 1976 to 1987, the number of cable networks gre from 4 to 76
• Revenue expanded from $900m to $12billion

This was even before satellite accelerated this further. Fast forward 50 years, and we are at the same crescendo again.

• There are over 100m US streaming subscribers (OTT, chord chutters, post-cable (whatever term of preference)
• 30% of total US time spending consuming TV content is spent on streaming platforms
• Netflix has 150 million subscribers. That figure will look tiny in 10 years time. As will the 15 million Disney+ subscribers who signed up in the first week.

Much like cable changed viewing habits of terrestrial TV, streaming is doing the same.

Much like the Thrilla In Manilla on Home Box Office, it wasn’t that the numbers were massive compared with what had gone before, but the produce was better. Streaming was the same last night.