After reading Kelsey’s “No Need to Panic” posts, I thought I would weigh-in with some of my own opinions and thoughts regarding the current MMA scene and why it is the way it is.
Where does the market for MMA really stand?
I disagree with the notion that the MMA market is healthy. It’s one-sided.
MMA has yet to achieve mainstream acceptance as a sport, but has successful brands.Â
Brands like Tapout and Throwdown are certainly rooted in MMA, but as far as the sport itself is concerned, its dominated by one major player, with only a handful of smaller promotions that are profitable.
More worrisome is that the flood gates that were supposed to open after the EliteXC/ CBSÂ debut have yet to do so. While Strikeforce’s NBC programming is a sign of greater network acceptance, its time slot is an indicator that the NBC is only interested in showcasing the sport to a narrow, already established, but reliable audience walking in from a bar at 2 AM. And the 30 minutes allotted to Strikeforce is barely enough to showcase two fights – usually a 3 rounder and a quick KO.
I will agree that many of the MMA failures we are seeing are a result of managerial mistakes, but to a larger extent outside of the UFC, no other fight organization has the means to promote itself through reliable “corollary” programming.
What is corollary programming? It’s programming that drives a promotion’s PPV sales by marketing the pay-per-view.
How important is corollary programming? It’s so important that in his recent conference call to announce the heavyweight championship fight between Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture at UFC 91, UFC President Dana White said that the usual Countdown show (that airs on Spike TV in the days before any UFC PPV) could be broken up into a three part series, as opposed to the usual one episode. This would give fans an incredibly introspective look at two of the sports most popular stars and allow the UFC to label the match in any number of ways including “Veteran vs. Rookie” or “Wrestler vs. Wrestler”.
Why does corollary programming work? Corollary programming works because a lot of UFC fans were “raised” in the WWE/ pro-wrestling mentality of the male-soap opera in which a story line plays out and culminates in a fight. Corollary programming allows the UFC to highlight fighters on Countdown, or set the stages for main event fights between coaches. It also gives the first-time fan a clue of what they are watching during the PPV.
Does corollary programming make the UFC invincible?Nope. Going into Season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter, many across the web were talking about how the show was becoming stale. The producers responded by having the partcipants fight their way into the house. An interesting ploy for the first few episodes, but then it returned to the same old storyline for better or worse: guys in a house who fight.
Right now the only networks poised to produce such stand-alone corollary programming for promotions are Showtime and HDNet. Neither have flexibility in their programming schedule. However, neither have the ubiquity in distribution to make much of an impact. HDNet estimates its subscriber base at about 10 million and Showtime at 15.6 million. To its credit, HDNet has is a much more serious MMA player, airing events from multiple fight promotions and substantially investing in its weekly news show, Inside MMA, which itself is corollary programming that is non-promotion specific.
Perhaps the biggest power player in the MMA game right now is not in the MMA business: Spike TV – the source of the majority of the UFC’s corollary programming.
Somewhere in the virtual business simulations that play out in business schools across the country the following scenario might be interesting for MMA fans:
One day Sumner Redstone wakes up and decides he wants a bigger piece of the MMA pie. He knows his company, National Amusements, retains majority control of both Viacom and CBS Corporation.  Viacom’s subsidiary, MTV Networks owns Spike TV, while CBS Corp owns Showtime, which has a substanial interest in ProElite’s EliteXC.
Suddenly the corollary programming on Spike TV changes. Fighters are now in a beach house just outside LA and are now vying for a six-figure EliteXC contract. The next Countdown-esque show outlines the trials and tribulations of warriors born of the streets – Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock – two men destined to collide inside a cage. (Cue the cheesy dramatic music here.)