MMAPayout wrote about the budding TV partnership just last week, which was first reported back in February for the Heavyweight Grand Prix. Primetime announced today that the Challenger Series will now be aired for free by the UK channel.
As the new UK home of Strikeforce we are pleased to announce that the exciting ‘Challengers’ events will now air FREE on Primetime, ch480 on Sky, starting with the Challengers 15 from Stockton Arena, Stockton, California on 1st April 2011.
Strikeforce Challengers is an MMA series produced by Strikeforce and Showtime to showcase and highlights up and coming fighters. It was launched in May 2009 and replaced the earlier ShoXC series.
Challenger events have allowed fighters to gain their first experience of a live televised environment and we have been luckily enough to see such stars as current Light Heavyweight Champion Rafael ‘Feijao’ Cavalcante, Matt Lindland, Ryan Couture(son of Randy) and Sarah Kaufman launch their careers live.
Strikeforce Challengers gives you the chance to watch the stars of the future, only on Primetime!
Stay tuned to Primetime, the new UK home of Strikeforce, for all the latest developments. www.primetimelive.co.uk
Payout Perspective:
A few key notes to take away from this announcement. First of all, there were some complains that UK MMA fans were not able to purchase the PPV if they had cable provider Virgin. Primetime has now stated on their front page that the events are “Available on Virgin and Channel 480 on Sky”. Second, offering the Challenger Series on the channel is a great call, allowing UK fans to become familiar with the brand, promotion, and prospects before they jump on to the bigger shows, which Primetime offers as PPVs for £9.95 in the UK, or roughly $16 dollars.
The April 9 card should be another successful event for Strikeforce and will provide a great baseline to see how many UK fans are willing to purchase the product, as UK’s very own Paul Daley will headline the event against Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz. Last week, Paul Daley took on DEEP WW Champ Yuya Shurai – which aired on UK’s Syfy channel – and finished him in the first round, which resulted in the Brit fighter becoming a top trend in both the United States and the UK, which bodes well for Strikeforce. The fight had a lot of interest from MMA fans knowing in advance that Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker mentioned that if Daley won his fight, he would take on Nick Diaz for the WW title. The April 9 event will also get a lot of attention from Japan, where DREAM fighters Kawajiri, Aoki (LW Champ), and Takaya (FW Champ) are scheduled to participate in the event along with Daley.
The UK fans with Virgin may not be able to get the PPV on TV but they can still get a legal stream from Primetime. Of course a stream is never as good as having it offered as a TV viewing but at least it is some thing. Which is more than I can say for the fights on HDNet.
I am sure the UFC will be keeping an eye on this.
Jose:
Are you still working on the Showtime write up?