The UFC announced a two year TV distribution agreement with Fox Sports Latin America to air UFC live events and programming. The deal gives Fox Sports the exclusive right to air UFC content in Latin America with the exception of Brazil.
FOX Sports Latin America is the number one sports pay television network in the region reaching more than 29 million households in 18 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America and the brand that represents the best of sports programming in Latin America.Via the UFC:
UFC events will be available on FOX Sports, FOX Sports+, and FOX Sports HD, and all live events will air on FOX Sports and FOX Sports HD on Saturdays at 10 pm (Buenos Aires) and 8 pm (Mexico City).
“We felt the time was right to expand in Latin America. We launched with Globosat in Brazil in 2008 and saw the popularity for the sport to explode. We knew we had millions of fans in Latin America and wanted to give them access to content and programming developed exclusively for them,” said Dana White, President of UFC.
The distribution agreement beigins this Saturday with UFC 133 and Fox will air 24 live events per year in addition to other UFC content.
Payout Perspective:
The television agreement falls in line with a recent Sports Business Journal survey which inferred that MMA was one of the most popular sports among Hispanics. Some were quick to point out with the survey that MMA isn’t that popular as Luchadores carried the MMA/wrestling category. Additionally, boxing was not included in the SBJ survey so the argument is that its hard to believe that MMA could be that popular. Despite the perceived flaws in the findings, the UFC has decided to forge a television agreement for audiences in Latin America to watch the UFC.
Regardless of the skepticism of its popularity among Hispanics, MMA is a growing sports property and entering into a television agreement with Fox Latin America was a natural progression in expanding the MMA audience. It allows the UFC to feature guys like Cain Velasquez, Dominick Cruz, Diego Sanchez and Gilbert Melendez (yes, he’s in Strikeforce…for now) in addition to the rest of the roster.
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