The UFC has announced a new, multi-year distribution deal with streaming content provider Roku, which will allow its 500,000 subscribers to purchase UFC PPV events starting with UFC 114 on May 29th.
UFC® FIGHTS LIVE ON ROKU STARTING WITH UFC 114: RAMPAGE vs EVANS
Las Vegas, NV (USA) – For the first time ever, just as UFC® light heavyweight rivals Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans enter the Octagon™ and touch gloves, Roku users all over the country will be able to see what happens next and who emerges the winner of this ultimate grudge-match live on TV via their Roku streaming video player.
The world’s largest live Pay-Per-View event content provider, the Ultimate Fighting Championship®, and Roku, Inc. today announced a multi-year deal to feature all major UFC events on Roku, starting with UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans taking place Saturday, May 29 live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“We are always looking at the latest technology and the newest ways to bring the UFC experience to our fans,” said Dana White, UFC President. “Roku is another way for fans to get more UFC and watch all of the UFC events live and in HD, starting with UFC 114 on Saturday, May 29th.”
“The Roku player is capable of delivering amazing live events, in HD, on the TV. We are excited to be UFC’s lead partner in bringing the total UFC experience – from live events and classic fights to insider previews, countdowns, and training coverage – to fans everywhere, whenever they want it,” said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, Inc. “The new UFC channel joins a growing list of major streaming content services for the TV that started first on Roku, including Netflix, MLB.TV, and Amazon Video On Demand – further strengthening our position as the leader in delivery of premium streaming content.”
In addition to UFC 114 and future live fights, Roku users will also have access to the UFC® Vault™, the world’s largest collection of archived fights, as well as live access to UFC pre-fight events including the official weigh-ins, and pre-and-post fight press conferences, hosted by White.
Payout Perspective:
Roku is essentially a little receiver not unlike any cable or satellite box except that you log into your home WiFi and use internet bandwidth to receive the television signal. Roku charges $79.95 for an SD box and $99.99 for an HD box; most channels are free, but there are several pay channels like Netflix or MLB Live that you must pay an additional subscription fee for.
I’ve talked a lot over the last few months about how the television industry is changing in many ways and Roku provides a glimpse as to what the future may hold. While it may not come to bear that the television industry completely turns on its ear in terms of a business model, it’s hard to argue with the rapid advances in internet-based technologies, more web-based content isn’t in our future.
If we’re not there already, we will be soon.
What does that mean for the UFC? This deal isn’t ground breaking right now, but it could prove near clairvoyant in ten years from now. The company is experimenting with several distribution mediums (the ad-supported model with UltimateFighter.com, a la carte on-demand, and now Roku) to see what fits best and to ensure that it’s prepared for any direction in which the market shifts. Pretty smart.
Awesome. I have a Roku and it’s great, and now I’ll get to see the press conferences and weigh ins on my big TV rather than my little laptop. I agree with Kelsey that I don’t think it will boost their PPV sales right now – I was already getting the PPVs on cable and I’m guessing most people who know about the Roku also get cable since the Roku requires a high-speed connection and you usually get that bundled with a cable package. Regardless its one more distribution mechanism that the UFC is going to stamp their brand on.
Access to the Vault is a clever idea. If I can watch the prelims on my TV I will be more likely to pay the fee. Right now I never watch them if they don’t air on the main card.
The way i uderstand it is the UFC charges for fights from the Vault. I would not pay $2 per fight. I also think the UFC should make all fights free that are more than -6 months old. Allowing unlimited access to past fights of future headliners is a great way to build hype for that headlien fight. The more people you have on UFC.com watching old Rampage fights the more anticipation and hype there will be when hsi Evans fights takes place. Charging is only making sure few people visit the site and less interest in future fights. I dount the UFC is making much charging for this. So giving it for free wouldnt cost them much and would be another great tool they have promoting PPV events and its fighters. Also seeing how many views some fights get could give them ideas who the public wants to see and who they should build or put on main cards.
Back to Roku. Dana has said a few times the future of tv is on the internet. Im sure that prediction was more than a little bias and wishful thinking. Seeing as the cable companies have all the leverage the UFC would love to find a different approach than having to bend over backwards for them. You really cant fight the PPV providers. WWE tried years ago and lost their ass and come crawling back. Also the internet would provide many other carriers more than likely so a high PPV selling company like the UFC could leverage into a much bigger cut of PPVs. Currently PPV providers take between 40-60%. So if the UFC sells 1 million PPVs for a revenue of 45 million. The provider takes over 20 million. The fighters and event expense take atleast 5 million. Then the governement takes 40% of what is left. So out of 45 million the UFC might get 10 million.
Getting tv to go through the internet could mean the UFC one day only giving 10-20% to providers if that. With the number of events each year. That could almost double the value of the UFC.