In the past few years, marketing during fight week has proven extremely valuable in motivating consumers to purchase a PPV event. Thus, I suspect the UFC will pull out all of the stops this week to promote UFC 114, because this event could wind up pushing 800k – which is remarkable for a non-title bout – and really help continue the UFC’s fight interest momentum towards UFC 116.
What does the UFC have in store this week?
UFC Undisputed 2010
The biggest news-generator is likely to be the release of THQ’s UFC Undisputed 2010 on Tuesday, May 25th for the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. The game sold 3.5 million copies last year and promises to sell very well this year once again. If you consider that the average gamer is right in the UFC’s demographic wheelhouse, and then take into account that these gaming websites have the ability to reach millions of gamers, the UFC will be getting a ton of pop on fight week from fans reading and watching reviews/videos of the game (and talking about it) on these websites.
UFC Primetime: Rashad vs. Rampage
The final episode in the third UFC Primetime series will air on Wednesday following the broadcast of TUF 11. The fact that an average of 1+ million have watched both of the shows thus far is something that bodes well for UFC 114.
MMA Live & ESPN Coverage
The UFC will also feature heavily on ESPN2’s MMA Live segment this Thursday night (May 27th), but due to other programming commitments will only air a post-fight show for UFC 114 (as opposed to the pre- and post-fight shows it did on ESPN2 for UFC 113). I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Rashad and Rampage doing interviews on ESPN Sportscenter this week.
As I’ve said before, it’s my expectation that ESPN will renew this show for at least another month to see how it will fare with UFC 116. Plus, you have to consider that the ratings for MMA Live on ESPN2 (~130,000 viewers) are slightly above what the network normally gets in that time slot.
However, the question for ESPN remains the same, is a gain in one demographic worth a loss in another? The ratings being slightly higher might not be enough to entice ESPN to continue with the program long-term (then again, I take a bit of an issue with the notion that it’s one or the other – we’ve never seen any hard evidence that these networks are hemorrhaging loyal viewers simply on account of MMA).
UFC Fight Week Promo
The UFC will also continue with its usual array of DW blogs, press conferences, and weigh-ins; all of which will give Rashad and Rampage a chance to spit even more venom than before. If last week’s media conference was any indication, there’s still no love lost, and the fans will likely eat it up.
Does anyone know what other simular ESPN shows ratings draw in comparision? Like Nascar tonight, NFL live, NBA live, NHL tonight, MLB tonight, etc? Also other MMA live shows?
The only other MMA show I know of is Inside MMA on HD Net, but I’ve never seen ratings reported for it. HD Net isn’t a very popular channel judging from their programming selection. The only thing I watch is their MMA and K-1 programming but I doubt any casual fans tune in.
I was refering only to the ESPN shows. Wanting to see a comparision of their respective sports shows to see how the 130,000 viewers stack up to others sports segments on ESPN.