MMA Junkie reports that Bellator 38 ratings dipped for the second week in a row with an average of 150,000 viewers for its MTV2 broadcast. Despite moving its start time to avoid UFC Fight Night overlap, it still had low ratings.
Bellator’s replay airing at midnight the same night PT/ET drew 97,000 viewers.
Via MMA Junkie:
The first-run season-four ratings include:
- Bellator 35 ratings: 200,000 viewers
- Bellator 36 ratings: 230,000
- Bellator 37 ratings: 173,000
- Bellator 38 ratings: 150,000
Payout Perspective:
An inverted triangle choke couldn’t save the ratings this weekend for Bellator as it once against went up against the UFC and NCAA Basketball Saturday night. This weekend it will go up against the Final Four. However, Bellator has a strong card this weekend with Eddie Alvarez defending his title against Pat Curran. Hopefully for Bellator, being the only MMA show on TV will show a rebound in ratings.
Wonder if Bellator’s investors are looking at the SF deal and wondering… “How much could we get?” Bellator can’t worth that much right?
Dana was in Chicago this weekend. Isn’t Bellator based out of Chicago? Um…..
MMA landscape is crowded this time of year, especially with 5 facebook fights on saturday plus 4 on spike. HDnet has plenty as well, and all the old unleased and fight nights we may have missed.
I have taped all the bellator bouts on mtv2, just have not had a chance to watch them yet (sorry dvrd them). Ratings are still godd for MTV2 on a saturday night and good demographics.
Do you know if these are peak or average numbers?
April and May are slow months for Saturday night fights – the UFC has 4/30 and 5/28 and Strikeforce 4/9. Three big cards in 60 days isn’t much and the tournament will heat up for the quarterfinals. I expect Bellator will improve it’s ratings during that time. There has just been too much MMA (and boxing) on TV lately. I know I’ve found it hard to keep up I’m sure a lot of the hard-core fans have simply skipped the early stages of the Bellator tournament.
Are they planning to schedule around the Pacquiao fight like they do for UFC cards?
I think that’s a risk of doing business. Competition for entertainment eyes and dollars is everywhere, not just the UFC or Strikeforce. For most fans, myself included, I’m not changing my plans to watch Bellator. I may watch the late show after going out for dinner, maybe I will go to bed. The UFC and Strikeforce are events that people care about and still don’t garner monster ratings. I personally will be surprised if MTV2 picks up the next season unless Bellator is extremely cheap. Honestly, I bet a Jackass rerun does similar ratings and is a whole lot cheaper.
This could be an indication that MTV2 is just not a platform where MMA programming is going to succeed right now. I had my doubts when the deal was announced. I’m not saying they have a better option, just that the declining ratings, which were low to begin with, are a concern for the future of the promotion on the network, and also a concern as to whether the network itself can draw more viewers for Bellator. I’d like to see a comparison of some of MTV2’s more successful properties (I’ll admit I have no idea what they are). April looks to be the most open month of the year for Bellator to try and turn things around, with only 1 major Strikeforce event and no UFC shows until the 30th.
El Chango, I seriously doubt that Zuffa is considering purchasing Bellator, given that they, like Strikeforce, have a TV contract to honor, as well as the fact that they are getting poor ratings, and the fact that there are only a few name fighters they would want (even Alvarez and Lombard lack the notoriety of the name fighters in Strikeforce). What would they have to gain?
The other thing I’ve noticed on the broadcast is how empty the venues are. They’ve got to get more people in the seats if they want to stay in business. I’m inclined to believe the rumors that they are losing money, big time. We’ll see how the investors react if the ratings and gate don’t improve.
I heard an unsubstantiated rumor online the other day that said they are doing a time buy w/ MTV. Considering the overall lack of a following they have, it could be an option but have no way of verifying that claim. They have next to no live crowd and the only people that give two shits are really hardcore fans. Even most hardcores don’t watch regularly.
I think it’s a decent product, but not a great one and would honestly rather watch a good movie or go out to dinner. The same can’t be said for UFC and Strikeforce. I plan my week around the big shows, I don’t plan 15mins around Bellator.
Anyone know the ratings from last Friday’s M-1 Global card on Showtime? I wonder if Bellator did better…
Up on MMAJunkie, M-1 drew 189k. Not sure if that’s peak or average but either way considering that Showtime is in a fraction of the households that MTV2 is in, that’s a big win for M-1.
M-1 did about as well as the smaller Challengers cards usually do when they don’t have any names on them.