Mark Taffet

Mark Taffet is President of Mark Taffet Media LLC (“MTM”), the company he formed on January 1, 2016 to leverage the myriad accomplishments and broad sports, boxing, business, strategic planning, negotiating, marketing and management expertise amassed as an industry leader over a stellar 32-year career at HBO, including 25 years as a senior executive of HBO Sports.   MTM specializes in consulting, business advisory, strategic planning, business development, marketing and management services to athletes, events, sports properties and sports television/media rights holders.  Among Taffet’s clients at MTM are:  Two-time US Olympic gold medal winner and two-division Undisputed champion Claressa Shields; Female Heavyweight champion Danielle Perkins; Female Jr Middleweight champion Patricia Berghult; Golden Boy Promotions; Roc Nation; and Salita Promotions. 

As Senior Vice President – Sports Operations & Pay-Per-View for HBO,  Taffet oversaw all aspects of HBO Pay-Per-View, the industry-leading PPV television network.  As a pioneer of the PPV television medium in the US, Mark wrote the business plan and launched HBOPPV in 1991 and engineered its unprecedented growth from 1991-2015.  He also spearheaded the HBO Closed Circuit television network, was integrally involved in the strategy and negotiations for the HBO Boxing franchise, was responsible for development of marketing and promotion plans for all of HBO’s boxers, and was one of the co-creators of the award-winning Face Off With Max Kellerman and 2 Days series of boxing programs.  In addition, he was responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of marketing, on-air promotion and scheduling for all sports programming on the HBO premium television network including World Championship Boxing, Boxing After Dark, 24/7, Hard Knocks, Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, and sports documentaries such as Namath, Derek Jeter 3K, and Magic & Bird, as well as the sports coverage on HBO’s digital platforms including HBO-On-Demand, HBO.com, HBO Youtube, HBO Go, HBO Facebook and HBO Twitter.  

Under Taffet’s leadership HBO Pay-Per-View produced, marketed and distributed over 190 live events generating   65 million buys and $3.6 billion of revenue including: the highest-grossing single-day sports event in history (Mayweather vs Pacquiao – $560 million total revenue, $437 million PPV revenue), two of the three biggest events in pay-per-view history (Mayweather vs Pacquiao – 4.6 million buys; De La Hoya vs. Mayweather – 2.5 million buys); the highest-grossing heavyweight fight in pay-per view history (Lewis vs. Tyson, $112 million); mega events featuring boxing stars Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis, Felix Trinidad, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones, Jr., Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera,  Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin; auto racing events featuring world-class drivers Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and  Jimmie Johnson; as well as concerts with musical stars The Three Tenors, The BeeGees, Phil Collins, TLC and David Bowie.

Taffet joined HBO in April 1983 as manager of Marketing Finance and held various senior management positions in business strategy and financial planning at HBO.  In 1991 he launched HBO PPV, and held senior programming and distribution positions in HBO Sports through 2015.  Before joining HBO, Taffet worked as senior finance analyst, new product development, for General Foods Corp. in White Plains, N.Y. and as a finance analyst for the Colgate-Palmolive Company. He has a BA degree in economics with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors from Rutgers University (1979), and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania (1981).

In 2016, the Boxing Writers’ Association Of America bestowed upon Taffet its prestigious Sam Taub Award For Excellence In Broadcast Journalism for his groundbreaking and game-changing body of work with the PPV television platform.  Taffet was elected to the prestigious New Jersey Boxing Hall Of Fame in 2015, was one of CableFax Magazine’s “Top 100 Heavy Hitters In Cable”,  was selected by Boxing Digest Magazine as “Boxing’s #1 Most Influential Figure” in 2002, and is a regular member of “Boxing’s Top 25 Most Influential” list.  Taffet was also honored in 2018 as Female Boxing Manager of the Year.

Taffet has been a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), served on the board of directors of the Cable Television Administration and Marketing (CTAM) Society’s Pay-Per-View Committee, was the co-chair of the cable industry’s 1994 National Pay-Per-View Conference, and served on the advisory board of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative.  He has led sports marketing symposiums for students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications and NYU’s Graduate School of Business.   Under his leadership, HBO Pay-Per-View and HBO Boxing campaigns earned industry distinction including the CTAM “Annual Award For Marketing Excellence” and the ProMax “Annual Award For Sports Promotion Excellence” numerous times. 

He was born in March 1957, currently resides in New Jersey, is married 40 years to his wife Annette, has two children – daughter Renee who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and son Joshua who graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications — and is a proud grandfather of three.