MMA Junkie reports that Bellator 40 ratings were up with 218,000 viewers. The ratings show the first significant rise in ratings since the second week on MTV2.
Via MMA Junkie:
Bellator 40 actually overlapped an hour with “Strikefoce: Diaz vs. Daley” on Showtime, which garnered 528,000 viewers. In addition to the initial MTV2 audience of 218,000 viewers, 190,000 viewers tuned in for the immediate replay (a 55 percent improvement compared to Bellator 40 when combining the two broadcasts).
Bellator 35 ratings: 200,000 viewers
Bellator 36 ratings: 230,000
Bellator 37 ratings: 173,000
Bellator 38 ratings: 150,000
Bellator 39 ratings: 174,000
Bellator 40 ratings: 218,000
Payout Perspective:
Maybe it is a marathon not a sprint as Bjorn Rebney indicated. Regardless, good ratings for Bellator on a night where Strikeforce scored one of its best ratings on Showtime. Hopefully for Bellator, the ratings will be a sign of things to come. Bellator will run unopposed this week so we shall see if Bellator can have a third week of positive ratings.
Great ratings if you consider the replay – just over 400k viewers. That’s very solid. I’m not sure why it is that the replays do so well, but good on them. Hopefully they get some traction and start to build their viewership. This is a good couple of weeks for them since they will be the only show in town.
Great to see Bellator’s ratings doing better. So much for Eddie Alvarez making himself “indispensable,” as his show was 4th in the ratings so far on MTV2. Hopefully they can capitalize on the next two weeks, as well as the month of May, when there isn’t much MMA on TV. After that… Zuffa is running 6 shows from May 28-July 2, and Bellator has wisely only scheduled one during that time frame on a day where they will be the only show on TV.
Diego,
I think it accounts for the west coast viewers which is an argument I have against the UFC moving up its PPV times 1 hour. There will be viewers that are still out an about and miss the first hour. For Bellator on west coast, the replay runs 8-10pm I believe.Prime viewing time.
Strage for the replay to get almost 100% of the first showing. To me that shows a few possible things. 1) The strikeforce event featuring Zuffa got some of the mainstrem UFC fans looking for SF and had to settle for Bellator. Maybe unlikey, who knows. 2. There was a lot of people looking for MMA that night and MTV does a horrible job of getting the info out. I still have no idea what time it comes on. Only was told what day it comes on a couple days ago. Also there is no reminders to watch. MTV 2 to so high on the dial i will never see it during my normal TV time. Without huge fights and fighters that people follow every move and everyone wants to see you have to promote your events. I have only seen one of their events. The first event almost a week after it first airred. I never miss fights. When im not getting the message no one is. This weeks events showed they could reach 400K weekly ratings if they advertised properly.
Jason,
It’s a trade-off for sure, but I think it benefits viewers on the East coast much more than it negatively affects those of us on the West coast. It would be interesting to question the validity of this change based on where the UFC’s strongest PPV markets are (and you sir, would be a great candidate to perform such an analysis based on past works). I know Sacramento is one of them 🙂