MMA Junkie reports that Bellator 37 ratings dropped down to 173,000 viewers on MTV2 last Saturday night. Although the lowest ratings of the three showings on MTV2, it faced stiff competition against NCAA tournament basketball and the UFC 128 PPV.
Via MMA Junkie:
Bellator’s season-four first-run ratings include:
- Bellator 35 ratings: 200,000 viewers
- Bellator 36 ratings: 230,000
- Bellator 37 ratings: 173,000
Payout Perspective:
A slight dip in the ratings for Bellator which may not rebound until next week due to UFC Fight Night Saturday night. As to last weekend, with the UFC Facebook stream, UFC Prelims and PPV a consumer would have five hours of MMA in them before even checking out Bellator. With seven hours of MMA on one night, the dip in the ratings was likely. It will be interesting to see how it does this Saturday and the weekend of April 9th when it goes up against UFC’s Fight Night and Strikeforce respectively.
One other thing that made a difference is that Bellator 37 started at 7p instead of 9p and that this past weekend, Bellator ran against the NCAA tournament. Two big differences compared to the first two weeks
Bellator will be against the NCAA again this week and the event will also start at 7pm, so it will be interestng to see how/if the audience changes.
I agree. I think that’s the perils of having a Saturday night timeslot. Hopefully for Bellator it can ride out these bumps. But, it will have problems when it goes up against UFC PPVs. Also, we shall see how it does when NHL and NBA playoffs go into full swing.
You have to wonder if these facebook fights that the UFC is airing this Sat. are purposefully positioned to take potential interest away from the Bellator show. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were going to show 5 fights on facebook, for the prelims for a Spike TV broadcast. Never been done before I believe. Thank goodness fpr DVRs. I hope people make good use of their DVRs this weekend to get Bellator a stronger rating. It is their first light heavyweight tournament after all. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of talent they’ve got lined up.
“You have to wonder if these facebook fights that the UFC is airing this Sat. are purposefully positioned to take potential interest away from the Bellator show”
I seriously doubt it.
They were originally scheduled to do their usual two fights on Facebook, but the members of the UG begged Dana for more fights and he delivered.
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma.cfm?go=forum_framed.posts&thread=1793502
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma.cfm?go=forum_framed.posts&thread=1794367
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