UFC Internal Estimates: 250k New PPV Buys for UFC 91
October 2, 2008
Ryan Hockensmith of ESPN The Magazine had a small piece on Brock Lesnar in the recent print version of the magazine. The main thrust of the piece was putting over Brock and hyping the the UFC 91 show. Hockensmith spoke with Dana White for the article, who said internal research shows the fight will bring in a host of new fans:
“We Estimate we’ll get at least 250,000 buys from fans who’ve never bought one of our fights before,” says UFC president Dana White. “Brock is a huge new draw.”
These estimates fall in line with MMAPayout.com’s Adam Swift and his view on the prospects of UFC 91 breaking the 1 million buy mark. A small portion of these new 250k viewers will be WWE fans that have resisted the urge to order Brock’s fights up to this point, but the vast majority of the 250k new buys will depend on the effectiveness of the UFC’s marketing campaigns within the mainstream media.
It would be interesting to peak under the hood of the UFC’s internal research efforts, to see how quantifiables are attached to items like ESPN coverage, USA Today coverage and ad buys, etc. These internal projections are easier for the UFC with cards whose main promotional vehicle efforts are done with Spike TV. With those, the UFC uses items like ratings for their Countdown shows to project buyrates, something that MMAPayout.com also does but on a much less complex level.
