SpikeTV has announced it will offer a special two-hour MMA fight presentation on the evening of Saturday, November 7th:
Spike TV presents a special evening of recent UFC main event fights never-before-seen on cable (non-pay-per-view) on Saturday, November 7 (9:00 – 11:00pm ET/PT) showcasing the world’s best mixed martial arts fighters. The two-hour telecast, “UFC Main Events,” culminates with the highly-anticipated headlining bout of UFC 102 featuring Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
The fights airing in the special telecast include the following:
UFC 102
RANDY COUTURE vs. ANTONIO RODRIGO NOGUEIRA
This highly-anticipated battle featured UFC legend and former heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, Randy Couture, against former PRIDE heavyweight and then UFC interim heavyweight king, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
UFC 103
VITOR BELFORT vs. RICH FRANKLIN
A battle of veteran former UFC champions featured former light heavyweight champ Vitor Belfort returning to the Octagon against former UFC middleweight champ Rich Franklin.
UFC 101
BJ PENN vs. KENNY FLORIAN
Lightweight champion BJ Penn, in his second title defense, took on top contender Kenny Florian in a battle of Brazilian jiu jitsu experts.
UFC 101
FORREST GRIFFIN vs. ANDERSON SILVA
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva moved up in weight class for a non-title bout against former UFC light heavyweight champ and “The Ultimate Fighter 1” winner, Forrest Griffin.
Payout Perspective:
The UFC and SpikeTV are looking to counter-program Strikeforce on CBS with some of the best fights in the last few months.
Not only is the organization looking to the likes of Couture, Griffin, and Penn to attract viewership away from CBS, but it’s also an opportunity to once again showcase some of the best fights and fighters in the UFC. Two birds, one stone.
Whether it’s going to affect CBS’s viewership remains to be seen. Typically the thought is that live shows are better at countering than taped versions; fans will DVR the taped show and watch the live show.
However, I’d argue the opposite. Most hardcore fans are going to DVR the taped UFC show, but casual fans may not know the difference and the strength of the UFC brand may pull viewers to the Spike broadcast. Moreover, live competition has a way of facilitating consumer choice that increases overall viewership. The PR that both competing units can generate often leads to an overall expansion of the pie (e.g., to reference a bit of Gen Y material here: think Kanye West vs. 50 Cent).
The advantage that CBS has in order to counteract the counter-programming is a significantly greater level of network exposure. In many households, CBS may be the only option for MMA on TV that night.
Agreed. Most hardcore fans will DVR the UFC and watch CBS live. A good amount of casual fans will also watch the CBS show from all the advertisement that CBS is doing during the football games. SPIKE already has their main fan base that will watch no matter what.
TIVO for UFC that night I guess.
Great move by the UFC by putting on many of their big guns up against the SF show the pretty much guarantees to take out the casual fan who might be interesting in seeing the CBS show.
Thanks to their brand recognition and all the top names on the show this is pretty much the perfect way to hurt SF’s big coming out party without having to put on a live show against it. The UFC continues to be ahead of the curb when it comes to all of their strategic moves and this is no different, I expect to see lots of commercials for this in the coming weeks on TUF to get as many eyeballs to tune in on Nov. 7’th.