Variety reports that retired boxer Oscar De La Hoya plans to launch a channel dedicated to the “sweet science” of punching people in the face and torso. Making the announcement at the NATPE convention—an event where content producers and syndicators hawk their wares to programming executives—De La Hoya said that the channel would be named De La Hoya TV: Beyond Boxing, and it will be designed to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the sport.
Given how far boxing’s popularity has ebbed from its heyday, it might seem like a more worthwhile mission to get people interested in the boxing’s actual scenes before taking viewers behind those scenes. After all, America as a whole has decided it can’t tolerate boxing’s level of violence. The country prefers the somewhat less barbaric sport of football and the somewhat more barbaric sport of mixed martial arts. But De La Hoya has a demographic angle: Boxing is disproportionately popular among Hispanics, and De La Hoya said that the Spanish-language channel would be “targeting toward Hispanics here in the U.S.” The channel is slated to launch next month as a set-top box offering (if De La Hoya can get distribution) with plans to bring it to cable thereafter if Hispanics’ love of punching proves as insatiable as De La Hoya thinks it is.