One week after receiving a nice bump in its ratings, Bellator saw its ratings plummet to 132,000 viewers. MMA Junkie reports that the ratings saw a 39 percent decline from last week’s 218,000 viewers.
The lowly ratings were 18,000 viewers short of its prior ratings low of 150,000. The replay of the event scored 107,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
Disappointing numbers for Bellator on a night where it was the only live MMA event. Of course, Saturday night featured big fights on HBO and Showtime. Leave it to boxing to have two of its more exciting fights in some time on a weekend that Bellator could have gained some traction in ratings. The fact that HBO ran a free weekend promotion for non-subscribers gave it additional viewers for the Berto/Ortiz and Khan/McCloskey fights. In fact, Berto/Ortiz scored 1.5 million viewers.
Via Bad Left Hook (via Dan Rafael):
But the TV rating is very, very good. And what’s better is that those 1.5 million saw a really fun, really entertaining fight that they’ll remember, and that a lot of folks were talking about all night and even into this week. They saw a couple of young fighters, both of whom looked in good shape, both of whom fought hard, both of whom recovered from knockdowns (twice each). They saw Ortiz’s real coming out party, too, and for a Mexican-American kid who loves to smile on camera, that’s no little thing. Part of the reason Golden Boy hyped Ortiz so hard was because he has talent. Part of it is because a good-looking Mexican-American with a personality can be a license to print money.
So good news for boxing that not only are the great fights coming every weekend this month, with no reason to expect that to stop this weekend, but that people are seeing it happen.
Could the rise in boxing mean Bellator has another competitor for its viewership?
Bellator’s going to go up and down week to week depending on the competition…and the lead in…this week was a pros vs joes marathon that completely bombed…the good news is they put on good, competitive fights every week and that’s what will help them develop their audience.
I think that’s what is going to keep them afloat right now. They must do better next week because the week after is UFC 129 and the week after that is Pacquiao-Mosley.
If Bellator can only do well when they are the only thing on TV (no playoff games from a major sports league, no big boxing or MMA cards) they are not going to grow. There just aren’t enough “dead” weekends in a row for them to develop any kind of momentum.