According to Gareth Davies of the UK’s Telegraph, ESPN will be working with the UFC in the future to better promote UK fighters fighting on UFC events:
Clearly, the plan ESPN and the UFC have come up with is designed to cater for UK fans of the sport, and developing British fighters within the UFC. It is also a sign that ESPN are looking to put roots in for a long-term future with the sport.
A spokesperson for ESPN told Telegraph sport, in answer to whether ESPN would air UK fighters involved in preliminary bouts: “ESPN receive the programming direct from UFC, and in these instances UFC do not provide programming which features these bouts, however in the future UFC and ESPN will be working to ensure that where possible ESPN will be able to show British fighters who are in the prelim bouts. As soon as an agreement is met ESPN will make an announcement.”
I can reveal that at UFC 103 on September 19, where the exciting striker Paul Daley, a welterweight from Nottingham, and training partner of Dan Hardy, makes his UFC debut against American Brian Foster in Dallas, UK fans will see every moment as the fight will be aired on ESPN’s UK broadcast.
Payout Perspective:
Please don’t let the word “regionalization” fool you. ESPN UK will still air UFC 103 in its entirety at 3am – the exact same broadcast that folks in the US, Canada, and other places throughout the world will receive. The network will simply be airing Paul Daley’s fight in the UK at a time before the regular televised card (the word is probably 1:30am, but plans will change and make sure to pay attention to the official announcement).
“Regionalization” isn’t something new for the UFC. The promotion has long worked with different countries to provide special airings of local fighters, in addition to the main card. It’s been done in Germany, Sweden, South Korea, etc.
It’s also a great idea.
Most sports fans subscribe to a degree of xenophobia, and certainly everybody likes to cheer for a good, hometown boy.
Thus, in the same way that the UFC loads up fight cards with local talent, it also makes sense to feature local talent on regionalized versions of their event television coverage. The strategy may very well pay dividends in the form of higher PPV buys and live gate receipts for events featuring foreign fighters, or events held in foreign locations. It will help to compensate for the decreased interest domestically.
All indications are that the cost of doing these regionalizations is quite minimal: the fight viewers are seeing is something equivalent to what you’d be able to watch on the UFC’s website for a $1.99 fee. Moreoever, networks are seemingly more than happy to pick up the content, because it obviously does well in their localities.
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