UFC's 7yr. exclusive broadcasting deal with Fox

canucksfreak19

canucksfreak19

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Just noticed that there isn't a thread about this yet. What do you think of the deal?

My thoughts, I think that the revamping of TUF is important, and may bring back at least a modicum of relevence to the show. It also helps that the fights will be live, and be selected by the viewers. Dana never wanted to do the "reality show" anyways, and this brings it closer to a Friday Night Fights style of show that he did want.

Also the four shows per year to air on Fox is huge. I don't think that it can be overemphasized how important this is. Bringing the UFC's product to network tv will be very interesting, and I am wondering if they'll move the Cain/JDS fight up to the Fox card (it is only one week earlier) and just load up the card with big, entertaining fights to draw the best possible rating out of the gate.
 
Perhaps they put one of Brock Lesnar's comeback fights on there. He's probably the biggest draw to the casual fan.
 
I read an article somewhere that listed the five fighters that are "worthy" of headlining the first network broadcast they were: Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Anderson Silva, Georges St Pierre, and Jon Jones.

The fight card is November 12.

Anderson Silva just fought, and in theory would be ready to go by then. However, there is no opponent looming in the wings for him that would be ready then. All possible contenders are already booked for fights around that time.

GSP is fighting Nick Diaz on October 29 so he's out.

Jon Jones is fighting Rampage on September 24 and it seems highly unlikely that he would be ready to go on a seven week turnaround between fights, regardless of whether he did it earlier this year or not.

With Brock Lesnar does anyone even know how his recovery is going? He could fight Frank Mir again as that is apparently whom he would like to fight upon his return, but again with his health a question mark the chances of him fighting on this card are just unknown.

Which brings us to Cain Velasquez and like I posted before this would seem the most logical fight to do with the proximity of the Cain/JDS fight (November 19), plus both fight cards are in California so there would be a large Mexican fan base to draw upon to make it a hype crowd.

Regardless what they go with to headline this card I am already eagerly anticipating it 2 1/2 months out.
 
Bad decision in my opinion. Why give away a huge fight for free? There's no doubt that they need a big fight or two for the first FOX event, but a heavyweight title fight should be on PPV. Sacrificing PPV buys for TV ratings is what started the demise of WCW back in the mid 90s and still don't think that it's a good call today.
 
JTMcCool said:
Bad decision in my opinion. Why give away a huge fight for free? There's no doubt that they need a big fight or two for the first FOX event, but a heavyweight title fight should be on PPV. Sacrificing PPV buys for TV ratings is what started the demise of WCW back in the mid 90s and still don't think that it's a good call today.
Click to expand...

I'm on the other side of it...this is a fantastic business decision for the UFC.

The WCW is a completely different beast than the UFC. They had already established and secured tons of mainstream network coverage through Turner Broadcasting and didn't need to gather any more mainstream attention. This was also in the height of wrestling's popularity, so ratings had nowhere to go but down since they were at their peak.

The UFC has no mainstream network television appeal coming into this. Spike is a cable channel, and Fox is a free to air. This is the chance for the UFC to draw to a completely different demographic of people, exposed to the UFC by network news reports as a violent sport when it's arguably less violent and definitely better entertainment than boxing. This is the only fight that made sense to offer to buyers for free. UFC's buyrates aren't as high as they were a couple years ago, and while this may have a small dent in buys for UFC 139, the momentum it establishes and advertising revenue it generates from the Fox deal will quickly cancel out any monetary loss from that one event.
 
I agree Matt. Dana White has dreams, some may say delusions, of MMA in general (but the UFC brand in particular) becoming a mainstream sport. The only way for that to possibly happen was for the UFC to get a network deal. And you don't set up your first show on network tv ever, and put on a main event of Chris Leben and Mark Munoz. They had to put in a headliner that was big. And this fight was the only one that made sense. In this way they are doing the opposite of what happened with pro wrestling. By making this move they actually are thinking long term, while sacrificing a bit of PPV revenue in the short term.
 
I'll admit that the WCW comparison isn't a perfect fit, but I still feel there are a number of similarities. And I understand where you're coming from and I can see the potential benefits to putting this title match on free TV, I still think it's both a short and long term mistake.
In the short term, they've killed a lot of the interest of UFC 139, so right off the bat they're losing PPV buys. And while I'm sure the ratings for the Fox event will be great, I think that the curiousity factor alone would have brought in good ratings. The goal will be to keep those viewers and turn them into MMA fans. An exciting, non-title fight could accomplish the same thing in my opinion, and even increase interest in buying a PPV for the casual fan. And it would keep title fights special.
Perhaps the biggest question I have is where does UFC go from here? If the next Fox show doesn't have a big title fight, do the ratings dip? Advertisers don't want to see a declining audience, they want to see growth. What's bigger than a Heavyweight Title fight? Lesnar return? GSP match? Silva match? GSP vs. Silva? Does it make sense to give those fights away for free?
I hope that UFC's foray into network TV is successful, but I just don't like the booking strategy. Since it's a 4 fight deal, why not build it up and have a big title fight on the 4th show, finish with the best ratings, show growth, and get an even bigger TV deal. If they start off too high, there's no where else to go but down.
 
The idea of building up to a bigger event is more a relic of pro wrestling. These events, in a sense, are one offs. They do not bleed into one another because there are no running story lines like in wrestling. Plus it's four fight cards per year for seven years. Personally I believe that they need to attract the biggest audience possible for this first event.

I read an article: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/9/2...es-pay-per-view-buys-for-the-bigger#storyjump

The author makes some interesting points, namely that the UFC is going to want to use the shows on Fox as an opportunity to "Build new stars on Fox, hype upcoming PPV events, and line-up fights on the network cards that achieve both of those objectives".

And that's what putting this fight on Fox does. Cain and JDS are both developing stars. The winner of this fight on Fox can become an instant Top-5, possibly even Top-3 PPV draw in the entire company. There will never be an opportunity to have this many eyes on them again.

I also don't think that the PPV the following week is going to suffer that much. There are a number of fights that they could slot in there and with the promotion that will invariably come the week before on Fox plus the extra pairs of eyes (casual spectators) that will watch the card on Fox and say "hey that was pretty entertaining, maybe I'll check out the PPV next weekend" will help ease any dip in PPV buys.

Will they be putting fights like this on every Fox card? Of course not. But they don't have to. However you only get one chance to make a first impression though and the UFC has decided to do everything in their power to make that first impression an amazing one.
 
It was also announced on the conference call that the Fox show will be 1 hour, and this Cain/JDS fight will be the only fight to air. So the UFC really had to make sure they put a big fight on.
 
Effective January no more facebook fights, all fights will be broadcast on television through various FOX outlets.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/9/1...k-fights-to-end-in-january-all-fights-will-be

This is awesome news, especially considering my computer is a piece and doesn't allow me to watch the streams on facebook. I'm just curious if Sportsnet will be picking all of these fights up in Canada. I really hope so.
 

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