Countdown to UFC 101, which aired last night on Spike TV, drew in a sizeable 805,000 viewers. The historical average is somewhere in and around the 600,000 mark.
It’s been quite difficult as of late to make any sort of correlation between Countdown ratings and PPV buyrates. The following illustrates the inconsistencies between Countdown and PPV popularity:
– Countdown to UFC 96 did 703,000 viewers; UFC 96 yielded approximately 325,000 PPV buys.
– Countdown to UFC 91 did 537,000 viewers; UFC 91 yielded approximately 900,000 PPV buys.
So, I’ll refrain from using UFC Countdown figures to predict PPV buys for now. I’m in the process of acquiring the full set of Countdown data and will look to compile a more extensive analysis at some point in the future.
With that said, if you take into consideration the recent success of the UFC’s PPVs, the recency of the UFC 100 weekend, and the top draws for this up-coming fight, there’s no reason UFC 101 shouldn’t be able to break 500,000 PPV buys.
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