CBS: The Consensus Impact of “The Money Fight” on CBS Financials

The Mayweather-McGregor fight last weekend was expected to be one of the largest pay-per-view events ever, potentially surpassing the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight two years ago. That fight drew in over $600 million in gross revenue for all partners involved, including Showtime, a subsidiary of CBS Corporation. Some estimates for the Mayweather-McGregor fight suggest that the fight may have surpassed $700 million in gross revenue.

How much were analysts expecting the Mayweather-McGregor fight to benefit CBS specifically?

While the fight is not an explicit line item in analyst models, given the size and timing of the announcement, it’s possible to roughly isolate how much analysts were expecting the fight to financially benefit CBS using Visible Alpha’s revision data.

CBS’s Cable Networks revenue estimate increased by $90 million from mid-June (the date of the fight announcement) to the most current estimate today. While this also includes a revision due to 2Q results, much of this is likely due to the Mayweather-McGregor fight.

Crucially, EBITDA and operating income estimate revisions at CBS’s Cable Networks are roughly flat over that same time period, reflecting analyst expectations for the fight to be essentially break even from a profit perspective. Showtime has previously stated that the broadcasting requirements for such an event are significant and costly.

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As a result, while “The Money Fight” generated huge paydays for Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, analysts are not necessarily expecting the same for CBS’s fortunes.