MMA Junkie reports that Bellator 36 on MTV2 had 230,000 viewers this past Saturday with the immediate replay receiving more viewers at 241,000.
Via MMA Junkie:
The live airing earned a 16 percent increase from this season’s debut episode, and the immediate replay earned an astounding 90 percent increase over the previous week’s replay broadcast.
Compared to the previous week’s live airing and immediate replay, Bellator 36 scored a 56 percent ratings increase among men ages 18 to 34, a staggering 119 increase with men ages 25 to 34, and an impressive 45 percent increase in total average audience.
Payout Perspective:
We would be remiss without mentioning the strong ratings for Bellator in its second showing on MTV2. It went unopposed last Saturday and MMA fans tuned in. This is a good sign for the company and its partnership with MTV2. It will be interesting to see how the second biggest MMA organization will do against UFC-Strikeforce. The numbers are promising although this week will likely drop due to a combination of UFC 128 and the NCAA Tournament.
The higher ratings for the immediate replay may be in large part due to the west coast viewers.
I hate to be pessimistic (then again, I am a realist, so they go hand-in-hand), but it seems like Bellator is where Strikeforce was a few years ago in regards to the ratings. The problem is, there are a lot fewer MMA stars outside of the Zuffa umbrella in todays talent market, so there is much less of a chance for Bellator to sign any big names in the future (although there will probably be the ever present Zuffa cast-offs…). They are doing a good job growing stars organically, but I question the marketability of some of them. I respect Cole Konrad’s wrestling pedigree and enjoy his fights, but it’s always tough to sell athletes who have jiggling rolls of fat as they ply their trade to the masses, especially when they don’t work it into a personality gimmick, ala Roy Nelson. Joe Warren had an interesting ascent to their featherweight championship, and their was the Imada submission and the Reyes spinning backfist KO, which were not likely to be and have not been repeated. Also Hector Lombard… enough said (although I felt his title defense left something to be desired, like a deeper gas tank). I just don’t see a lot of sustainable buzz coming from the promotion’s events. The tournament format is unique in today’s landscape, but it creates the necessity for ridiculous non-title fights, which always have the possibility of giving the champion a loss, leaving a mere paper champion. Hasn’t cost them yet, but this is MMA.
I enjoy Bellator’s events, I’m just not sure that they can expand to the point where they really are #2. Right now they’re just “the other MMA promotion on non-HdNet cable TV.” If they can keep their budget in line, and experiment with some promotional techniques, then hopefully they can continue to increase their number of viewers. I’ll be rooting for them, really I’ll root for any MMA company that treats it’s fighters properly and has a decent product (looking at you SHINE).
Machiel Van, I agree with you post but I have a more optimistic view. There will always need to be a Pepsi to UFC’s Coke. Bellator stands to gain the most from the acquisition of SF by the UFC. Not every fighter is going to want to fight in the UFC and on top of that some of the guys that get dropped now would have very few other choices so may decide to go the way of Bellator.
Maybe they can do bigger things in the future, but the layoff for the champions is a killer. When the champs are defending their belts every 4-6 months against Roger Huerta, Josh Neer, and Herbert Goodman, it doesn’t give the belt a lot of legitimacy with the fans. Far more fans saw Neer and Huerta losing in the UFC than saw Eddie making a name for himself in Japan. I like what they are doing and they put on some good fights while bringing along some legitimate prospects, but they need a connection with casual fans to make it to the next level.
Agreed Nick. I think it will take some time but given the potential void in the market for those who are looking for alternative MMA, Bellator is poised to grab that segment. It’s also possible that someone would be looking to acquire an MMA organization and what better organization to acquire than Bellator at this stage of the game.
Nick, the funny thing is Alvarez’s fights against Neer and Huerta weren’t even title defenses. They were non-title bouts that would’ve made the belt just look silly if Alvarez had lost. The Lombard-Goodman bout was also not for the title. When Alvarez faces Pat Curran, he will have had three non-title fights, and it will be his FIRST title defense, almost 22 months after winning the title.
Similarly, it took Hector Lombard 16 months to defend his title, and he took five fights during that span. For guys like Alvarez and Lombard, some of Bellator’s best fighters and biggest stars, the promotion just can’t give them the work they need. This is a big problem for Bellator with their tournament format, if the champion is only defending the belt once every one-and-a-half to two years. If the champion loses any non-title bouts, the title loses legitimacy. If Alvarez had lost to Neer, they could say “but the fight was at 160, not 155,” but c’mon, that’s as bush-league as it gets.
Again, I like the Bellator brand, and I enjoy watching their fights. But objectively, I think those who claim things like “Bellator is poised to become number two” and “the Strikeforce buyout was the best thing possible for Bellator” are indulging in hyperbole. Given the problems I stated above, the limited viewership of MTV2, and the fact that Zuffa is where most talented fighters will now be looking go, the amount of growth they will experience is limited.
As a fan who loves MMA and who truly does like seeing the little guy succeed in the marketplace, my greatest concern is that I just don’t think the organization is ready to be in this sort of limelight, and I would hate to see the promotion flounder because it tries to rise to the expectations of fans who just want a competitor to the UFC. I hope they keep their business model and format, although they need to tweak the latter in order to satisfy their champions’ demands for more fights, if they don’t want to risk their titles becoming illegitimate (they really don’t need to give Dana extra ammo for the inevitable interview questions about them).
Guru, I see your point, but who is the Pepsi to the NFL’s coke? Or the MLB? or the NBA? All of these organizations had legitimate competition in the distant past… absolutely none nowadays (other than themselves via labor disputes). If Pepsi disappeared, it’s a stretch to say that RC Cola would benefit as much as Coca Cola. Sometimes there just is no number two.
I hope that I am wrong though sir, and that you are correct.
What I have heard from a few people and Meltzer even said this, is that Zuffa right now feels like a “run-away train”, meaning the wheels are now in motion for the next step they want to take and it will take a lot for them to stop it. I believe they have set their goals for the next 2-3 years and global expansion is the key. They already purchased Strikeforce and will get a boost from doing so, but there is no one else left, they currently have 400 fighters on their roster and are going to attack 4-5 different international markets all at once. It will be definite be interesting to see if they can pull it off.
WWE tried to do the exact same thing Zuffa is trying to do right now, though they halted their plans before they invested too much on it and thought better of it.
Machiel Van, the scenarios you point out are definitely the more likely future scenario. I’m just speculating that Rebney sees this as a plus for his fledgling organization. Just last week there was very little focus on Bellator and most probably would have come to the conclusion that his organization was a distance #3. Now that there is no longer a clear #2, I feel like some doors may open for Bellator. But you are right, they fit more in line with the RC brand of Cola than a Pepsi.
Jose, those are some pretty big expansion plans. A lot of things have to fall into place for it to work. Without doubt Zuffa has a vision for the UFC and Dana is definitely the man to lead them there. Perhaps 10 years from now we will look back and realize how Dana was the Steve Jobs of MMA. Time will tell.
On a side note, I was thinking about the business end of the deal. There seems to be a lot of rumors abound about the cost of the transaction and the players involved. What stuck out for me was that Zuffa was attempting to attain capital for the purchase, if true, I wonder why they would not have enough cash reserves to make such a deal without need more investment injection.
Definitely agree guru, this will be a good thing for Bellator as long as they don’t try to be something they’re not. More attention from fans and media are definitely a good thing, and could help them grow, albeit at a well managed pace. And for all intents and purposes, it is the number two MMA organization by virtue of their TV deal, as you said they’re just not a close number two. As long as they don’t overextend, they should be fine.
Also, I think that Zuffa certainly had the money, they were just negotiating with their partners at Flash to kick in their share. Everything I’ve read seems to be vague, as I’m sure you’ve found, but that is the impression I get. They probably had to explain to their partners what they were buying and with the company’s money and why, and have them sign off on the deal. Maybe one of the staff writers could answer the question better, as I don’t have a lot of knowledge about big finance and how deals like this work.
UFC will run into the same problems WWE did, not to mention things like NFL Europe.
WWE’s idea was that there would be a WWE Europe, WWE Asia, etc that would put on regional shows and tour that region. The problem is the best guys would always go to WWE America cause that’s where the most money is, and WWE fans in Europe would rather watch the top guys perform in America than the 2nd stringers back in Europe. NFL Europe had the same problem — the fans who liked the NFL preferred to watch the real NFL with the best players.
UFC faces the same problem. The most money will be in the original UFC where the top contenders fight. So any regional promotion, UFC Europe, UFC Asia, etc will have the 2nd stringers. GSP doesn’t fight for UFC Canada, he just fights in UFC. Silva doesn’t fight for UFC South America, he just fights UFC.
So the UFC fans in each region will prefer to watch the top fighters — who will fight in whatever the main promotion is, probably in Vegas.
Some concepts get regionalized easily. Game shows. Talent Shows. Britain’s Got Talent becomes America’s Got Talent and Mexico’s Got Talent and Thailand’s Got Talent, etc, etc. You can export a successful format like that around the world.
But those aren’t sports. Those feature newcomer countrymen for a relatively short period of time. It’s aspirational. And each season is a fresh crop of contestants. It’s ok that they aren’t the best.
This is why I think it’ll be easier to regionalize shows like The Ultimate Fighter or do country vs country shows like England vs Australia. In those scenarios it’s ok if your country’s best guys aren’t actually world class.