The concept of rewarding fans with free fights is admirable, and a step in the right direction for a combat sport looking to avoid the mistakes that boxing has made over the years. However, the risk with the UFC Prelim shows is that if the two featured fights go quickly, it forces the hand of the UFC to show further fights in order to consume the air time it’s booked on Spike.
In the case of UFC 108, the UFC was forced to show four preliminary bouts on Spike (and it still had 15 minutes of air to fill). Then, as luck would have it, the PPV portion of the card continued with a series of quick bouts, which forced the UFC into replaying Prelim fights – that were shown prior to the PPV event for free – to their paying customers.
Fans don’t want to pay money for something they can get for free. And while the UFC may argue that these extra fights during a PPV aren’t a guarantee, it has been throwing in extra fights for so long that these fights are now expected by the fans. Thus, the format of these Prelim shows needs to be tweaked in order to both showcase young UFC talent and protect the value that UFC customers receive when purchasing a PPV.
The best way to maximize the exposure that prospects receive from the prelims might be to utilize shorter countdown-like segments in part of that hour-long prelim show. Don’t just show the fight, but tell the story of these two athletes – or four athletes – and get the consumer interested and familiar with who they are.
If the UFC were to produce two ten minute fight profiles for its feature prelim match-ups, it would fill 20 minutes of the hour-long slot (and capitalize on the near 1 million average viewership that these Prelim shows pull). That would then leave about 40 minutes for fights, PPV promo content, and commercials. Two guaranteed prelim fights with the option of a third in extreme cases would go a long way towards better preserving other under card bouts for PPV filler roles.
Note: The UFC 108 Prelims on Spike TV did a 1.0 HH rating that drew an average audience of 1.5 million viewers – the show’s highest audience rating yet. Not surprisingly, it played well to the M18-34 and M18-49 audiences garnering a 1.4 and 1.3, respectively.
Interesting post. I disagree about the countdown segments for prelims. To flesh out the broadcast, they could supply unaired prelims from past cards, or past fights from the headliners.
My thoughts on why including the prelims in the PPV broadcast are good.
#1. SpikeHD is not carried by every cable/dish affiliate. The PPV in HD most likely is.
#2. Not all people who get the ppv are watching the spike prelims. Some of us have to deal with college football/bball crazies (grow up and watch the NFL people!) at the bar.
well hear is the thing those 2 10 minute hype up would cost more to produce than just showing other prelim fights. The fighters make the same whether they make the prelim telecast, PPV or not so it really doesn’t cost the UFC anything.
Let’s be real here is this really an issue? I mean sure you see the same fights over but I would rather watch a knockout or a sweet submission for a second time. Would you rather listen to Goldie and Joe Rogan talk about who knows what? I mean look at the strikeforce setup if a fight ends early you have to watch 100 commercials or listen to their guys blab on for 40 minutes. After I see a ko in strikeforce I get a little bothered that now I have to wait forever to see another fight.
Besides what kind of fight fan would rather watch fight hype instead of a fight. Keep showing the fights UFC. The above poster made a good point not everyone has spike TV or were able to watch the fight on spike so it will be a first time viewing for quite a few people
I just wanna watch the fights and that y they have the ufc countdown shows they usally play that before the prelims anyways so ya I agree just the fights and less blah blah like o boy strike force has to much blabing going on and they usally don’t know what there talking about sep 4 lil franky shamwow lol gus johnson
Simpler ways to get every minute they can out of the 1 hour Spike prelim specials:
Have a meaningful intro to the broadcast, maybe even ala the PPV intro: banter from the guys in the two fights on the show, etc. etc.
Have Joe-Mike focus their opening talk on the 1 hour program itself leave the Pay Per View to be had in between rounds, fights, etc. etc.
Don’t rush the guys to the cage. Show their full entrances. Why not? Spike won’t re-air they specials again, so they don’t have to worry about putting generic music over the original music.
That would probably save the fact they were done so early last Saturday. I think they talked for a good 9 minutes at the end. And for future times, in the prelim Spike fights go long, if they eek out every minute they can get with these ways I listed, they wouldn’t have to show every fight that happened earlier. (Although, I’m all for seeing free fights. I’m just looking at it from a business and timing perspective, keep things smooth).
I completely agree. Familiarizing fighters within a small countdown show would do wonders. Also, I read (sherdog) that these last prelims garnered 1.5 million viewers. Excellent exposure for smaller names that afterwards can be focused on making ppv dollars.
Why not just add a couple more fights to every fight card that is showing prelims on Spike?
That would let under card fighters have a chance to fight more often and make more money. At the same time giving them a chance to gain experience and exposure for themselves. Plus at the same time giving the UFC more fights to either show on the Spike prelim show or the PPV.
I’m not a fan of people trying to tell the UFC how to run things considering their basically the best at it. To me there is nothing wrong with just showing fights and using the last couple of minutes to plug the ppv. We got to see 4 good fights for free, anyone who paid for the ppv like I did didn’t pay for prelim fights they paid to see Rashad vs. Thiago and that’s what I got enjoy the fights and ignore the other bs.
Diesel:
If fans are tuning into the UFC 108 Prelim, they want to see UFC 108 content – not fights from a previous show.
I’m not arguing that they avoid showing the two Prelim headlines on the PPV. If the UFC’s aim is exposure for these fighters, then you want to show the fights again.
What I am arguing is that they try to conserve the other bouts for the PPV card in order to reward their paying customers.
Pagan,
Agreed, it would cost them, but it’s an investment. The UFC’s mantra for a while now has been, “we’re not in this for the short term, we’re in it for the long haul.”
You can’t have sports without story telling, and that’s why these countdown segments are so effective – they tell stories. Without the context of who these fighters are and why people should be interested in them, the fights won’t be nearly as popular.
And, yes, it is an issue. Everything is an issue. In life you can afford not to sweat the little things, but in business the devil is in the details. It’s the little things that often provide the greatest opportunities to improve a product or service experience for the customer.
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Thanks for contributing. Please continue!
I’ll jump in when I can.
I emailed Kelly about this after the last event. The until point of free fights is to hope people get interested and choose to buy the PPV. So why force those people to sit through a rerun of the fight as a reward for buying the event? UFC 108 wasnt so bad. The rerun fights were quick. But the last event they were all long fights that had everyone in the room losing focus on the show. Killing any momentum the show has built up. Causing the event to drag on and on.
On top of that anyone who was already going to buy the PPV dont know for sure if they will see the prelims on the PPV. So if they skip the free fights the UFC may not show them and they dont see them. So they are tricked into watching the fights 2 times also. If people get to where they expect to see them on the PPV too then they will cut out the spike fights killing the Spike ratings of the free fights.
The UFC needs to show the free fights but needs to cut out the replays. Anyone who buys the PPV knows the fights are on spike before the PPV starts. Even sports bars i have been to have it on spike before the PPV starts. If anyone miss’ the free fights it because they didnt care enough to want to see them.