SBJ: Versus Renewal Includes 2 UFC Events

John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal is reporting that Zuffa’s renewal agreement with sports television network, Versus, not only includes seven WEC events but two UFC events.

The UFC is coming to Versus as part of a two-year renewal that the Comcast-owned network signed with the mixed martial arts association’s parent, Zuffa.

 

Versus will telecast two live UFC matches next year, in addition to seven from the WEC, MMA’s division for lighter weights, also owned by Zuffa. As part of the deal, Versus plans to stream one additional WEC fight per fight card exclusively to Versus.com.

 

Versus also is planning to produce many hours of shoulder programming around its WEC fights, including previews, best knockouts and a review of the best fights.

 

But the biggest part of the deal is UFC, which has produced some of the most popular programming for Spike TV, which will continue to telecast many of its fights.

 

The move to Versus, though, is important as it represents the most mainstream sports outlet to carry live UFC matches. Fox Sports Net regionals carried UFC events in the past, but those were telecast on tape delay.

Payout Perspective:

The WEC’s ratings on Versus haven’t been stellar relative to the UFC’s, but that doesn’t mean the UFC won’t do excellent ratings on the network. Expect that these events will be heavily publicized.

It’s essentially an exploratory agreement that will allow Comcast to become more familiar with the property, and it’ll definitely add more fuel to the speculation that the UFC could be part of any new Comcast-NBCU sports network that comes out of the pending merger acquisition.

This agreement may mean that Dana White’s dealings in Los Angeles (a secondary base for ESPN’s operations) have come to an impasse of sorts. However, it could also put some pressure on ESPN to make some concessions regarding rights fees for the UFC.

Stay tuned.