MMA Junkie reports that Bellator 54 on MTV2 received an average of 185,000 viewers. Running unopposed a UFC card helped the promotion increase viewership by 80% between Bellator 53 and 54.
Via MMA Junkie:
Once again, the latest ratings continue the organization’s wildly inconsistent season-five numbers; two events have scored at least 235,000 viewers, and three have drawn 158,000 or fewer.
A replay earned an average of 116,000 viewers. The 185,000 average equated to a 0.2 rating according to The Wrestling Observer.
Payout Perspective:
A nice bounce back from 53’s 103,000 average a week ago. As MMA Junkie points out, Bellator’s ratings have been across the board and its hard to find a pattern. But, we may argue that the numbers reflect the fact that Bellator can draw a decent audience when its not running up against the UFC. This begs the question as to if Bellator should move to another night. Moving the time slot on Saturday could be another option but that could draw confusion. Bjorn Rebney indicated that he would be open to such a move in 2012. But, this week Bellator 55 runs unopposed (on TV that is) so we should see another solid ratings week.
M-1 drew the same #s on Showtime which equates to a much higher rating. I think Bellator’s is the better quality show, it surprises me that they continue to draw so poorly. Being on MTV2 isn’t helping them. Based on the quality of the fights they put on, and they quality of their production (which can be improved but is decent) they could do 500-600k on Spike if not more. On MTV2 they are running to stand still. They don’t get any traction and they are not growing their viewership or the drawing power of their stars.
One thing they can do is have their champs fight more frequently. I’ve seen Grove and Schlemenko fight more often than Konrad and Lombard. Their lower-tier guys are getting more well know because they are more active and you can’t have that in a promotion.
I personally like the tournament format, I think it’s a good way to select contenders, but keep your champs busy with other fights (which should be 5-round championship fights – every time a champion fights the belt should be on the line). Or embrace the tournament format fully and put your champs in the tournaments and make them fight their way to the top every year. They could have both a tournament champion and a regular champion like they did in K-1. Just think of how much more we would see of Eddy Alvarez and Ben Askren if they did that. You might have to pay them a little more, but I’m sure they would be glad to be busy.
M-1 drew the same #s on Showtime which equates to a much higher rating. I think Bellator’s is the better quality show, it surprises me that they continue to draw so poorly. Being on MTV2 isn’t helping them. Based on the quality of the fights they put on, and they quality of their production (which can be improved but is decent) they could do 500-600k on Spike if not more. On MTV2 they are running to stand still. They don’t get any traction and they are not growing their viewership or the drawing power of their stars.
One thing they can do is have their champs fight more frequently. I’ve seen Grove and Schlemenko fight more often than Konrad and Lombard. Their lower-tier guys are getting more well know because they are more active and you can’t have that in a promotion.
I like the tournament format, I think it’s a good way to select contenders, but keep your champs busy with other fights (which should be 5-round championship fights – every time a champion fights the belt should be on the line). Or embrace the tournament format fully and put your champs in the tournaments and make them fight their way to the top every year. They could have both a tournament champion and a regular champion like they did in K-1. Just think of how much more we would see of Eddy Alvarez and Ben Askren if they did that. You might have to pay them a little more, but I’m sure they would be glad to be busy.