According to Middleeasy.com, Bellator is in need of a television deal for its fourth season.
Coming off season three, Bellator’s television partners were Fox Sports Net and NBC. It is believed that Bellator’s head, Bjorn Rebney was seeking a better television dea for next season.
FSN made it hard to find Bellator fights as it was bumped or delayed due to local programming. Without a dedicated time slot, it made it difficult for fans to watch or DVR the fights. It was rumored that Bellator was in talks with the G4 Network until DirecTV decided to drop the channel from its lineup. A spokesperson for the G4 Network could not confirm any discussions with Bellator. A Bellator spokesperson also stated it could not confirm any talks with G4 but if any news would occur, it would release a press release.
Some interesting tidbits from the Middleeasy post:
- Each Bellator show costs around $400K. A fee of $65K is paid to NBC to broadcast regionally in hopes that NBC will pick up the program for a national time slot. Bellator makes roughly around $20K from sponsors per show which still leaves them in a substantial hole that gets deeper with every week of Bellator broadcasts.
- The hedge fund investing in Bellator understood it would take a loss when the organization was created, but it is not happy with the financial results thus far.
Payout Perspective:
The continuing seepage of losses by Bellator explains Bjorn Rebney’s hope for a co-promotional card with Strikeforce. It explains his immediate concessions to Scott Coker of the location and television deal for a proposed card. It could explain the inexplicable release of texts between Rebney and Coker. Bellator is desperate and needs a partner to shoulder financial burden.
It’s unfortunate that Bellator cannot find an adequate media outlet to show its fighters. When I can find it on FSN, it is an entertaining product. In my opinion, I do not know if airing its product on the G4 network would have helped Bellator financially. It seems like a Paul Heyman’s ECW to TNN situation–essentially, a show on a network that really doesn’t fit with the audience. Nevertheless, any television deal Bellator can get, would benefit the organization. It has decent fights and is a great league for fighters that cannot get into Strikeforce or the UFC.
Very unfortunate. Survival will have to be a concern if they don’t get a good deal.
Rebney said in an interview at the beginning of season 3 that according to their business plan they were required to do a PPV at the end of this season. So that is some thing else in the plan they laid out to the finance company that hasn’t happened.
My guess is, if Bellator can’t get a TV deal that is at least guaranteed to run live every week that the money will just dry up. At this point it is unlikely that they will be able to sign with any one in time for the expected start of season 4 in January. With the exception of HDNet.
Cuban could make it work if he wanted to. But now that he is BFFs with Dana again I’m not sure he will want to. Then again if Dream and/or SRC go up in flames HDNet will need some more programming. The up side is that Bellator could dump their production costs and wouldn’t have to pay to get on TV. The down side is they would loose some branding and wouldn’t have any commercial time to sell. That and I don’t know if HDNet would offer enough money to keep the money men hanging in there.
I have a horrible feeling the fighters are about to become pawns in a game they don’t want to play. Either the next season gets delayed and they can’t fight or Bellator does the swirly and their contracts are held in limbo while bankruptcy proceeds. Any one know where Bellator is incorporated? Knowing which court will handle any bankrupty proceeding could help us know how things will go.
The last thing of interest is a rumour that Eddies contract is an open contract because he was still contracted to Dream when he signed. If so and season 4 gets delayed I wonder if he can accept fights else where with out Bjorn’s blessing?
The empire strikes back.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/21336/bellator-exec-blasts-reports-of-impending-demise-says-new-tv-deal-official-soon.mma
I’m not buying much of what he is selling.
Bellator’s poor ratings on FSN combined with the fallout from Strikeforce: Nashville (facepalm every time I am reminded of that event) on CBS, as well as the failure of the IFL in the past, are all evidence to networks that it is not worthwhile to show MMA without the UFC brand. This is very unfortunate, and is not a good thing for all of us MMA fans. I think finding a good television deal will be the major roadblock that any MMA promotion will face, regardless of the quality of their product. It’s all about ratings, and unfortunately its only the UFC brand that gets them, and even their ratings have been in decline. This is not a good time for prospective MMA television deals. Bellator, if you go under, thanks for all the great fights, you were one of the good ones. *Sigh*…
Hmmm. I wonder if Scott is waiting for Bellator to implode so he can scoop up Eddie Alvarez. If he lets Eddie fight Gilbert and Eddie wins, Dana will go on an all out bidding war for him and certainly sign him to the UFC. If Scott waits, then Eddie is still an unproven talent, Dana probably won’t be willing to pay as much (especially because Eddie still wants to fight in Japan once in a while) Scott can sign him, and then make the Alvarez-Melendez fight risk free (meaning regardless of who wins, the belt stays in Strikeforce).
“Hmmm. I wonder if Scott is waiting for Bellator to implode so he can scoop up Eddie Alvarez. If he lets Eddie fight Gilbert and Eddie wins, Dana will go on an all out bidding war for him and certainly sign him to the UFC. If Scott waits, then Eddie is still an unproven talent, Dana probably won’t be willing to pay as much (especially because Eddie still wants to fight in Japan once in a while) Scott can sign him, and then make the Alvarez-Melendez fight risk free (meaning regardless of who wins, the belt stays in Strikeforce).”
That’s been my take as well.