Solar Sports marketing head Jude Turcuato reports that "The Flash and the Furious" card that featured victories by Nonito Donaire and Brian Viloria was a commercial success. It was a risky proposition for Solar to promote the fight in the first place, given that neither Donaire nor Viloria have the star power of Manny Pacquiao.

Then there was the live event. A television broadcast is one thing, but the logistics of organizing, and more importantly, monetizing an event like a boxing card in Manila can be a daunting task. Broadcast giant ABS-CBN tried it with their "Invasion" card which they co-promoted with Golden Boy Promotions, and as Turcuato himself pointed out, they barely filled up half the Big Dome.

Several months ago, uncertainty surrounded the staging of the card because of the lack of sponsors, and Solar was forced to postpone the fight. It did turn out to be a good move, and the sponsors must have been happy with the 32.3 rating that the event scored in Mega Manila, despite the absence of Pacman to pull the ratings up. Here's a chart to put the rating in context, against some of the most popular shows and events in the country:



No one expected that the ratings for this event would scratch Pacquiao fight levels; only big events such as the Marimar finale or Angel Locsin's first transformation into Darna ever get into that stratosphere. But the fight, despite numerous commercials and a dead timeslot, managed to draw about as much viewers as GMA's primetime programs, and more than either network's noontime shows. Put it this way: more people cared to watch Donaire and Viloria fight Raul Martinez and Ulises Solis than watch Gerald Anderson fight Jake Cuenca over Kim Chiu.

Curiously absent from the roster of fight sponsors were the usual suspects, Smart/PLDT and San Miguel Corporation. Instead, the Lucio Tan group of companies seemed to foot the bill, with Tanduay and Cobra Energy Drink commercials running heavily during breaks. Tanduay must have put up a huge package since they got their choice of who would sing the national anthem. 6CycleMind lead singer and Tanduay endorser Ney Dimaculangan ended up singing "Lupang Hinirang", which is the worst national anthem-related idea since Manny Pacquiao toyed with the possibility of having Ara Mina sing the anthem prior to the second Barrera fight.

Solar also got creative with their promotions to get people into the arena. To get more buzz for the fight, they had Donaire and Viloria appear and co-host GMA's Sunday talk show Showbiz Central. The boxers also made numerous appearances during PBA games, where the fight was heavily cross-promoted. Finally, Solar announced a promo wherein people who buy PBA tickets were entitled to get 30% discounts on tickets for the fight. Now, I can't find any attendance figures for the fight so I can't confirm if this aspect was a success, but watching from the television, the crowd was hot, meaning there either was a lot of people there, or the few people who attended were just really loud. (UPDATE: Bob Arum mentions that there were about 17,000 fans at the Big Dome that morning. Not bad at all.)

About a month ago, Solar Sports seemed like they were in trouble after Pacquiao's aborted defection to ABS-CBN. They averted that crisis and now have some momentum on their side after the success of the Donaire-Viloria.

They're going to need it, because in a few months, they will be in another battle not just with ABS-CBN, but with GMA-7 as well, this time for the rights to broadcast the UAAP games next season. Solar also beat ABS-CBN last year for the rights to air the PBA games, not to mention that two years ago, ABS-CBN was the TV partner for Pacquiao fights before Solar swooped in and took him away. ABS might be tired of Jude Turcuato (their former broadcasting talent) and Solar drinking their sports milkshake. Question is, what is the network giant going to do about it?