This past Saturday’s Bellator 44 on MTV2 drew the largest audience of its season with 325,000 viewers tuning in. The telecast also delivered the network’s highest M18-49 rating in the time period according to an email sent by MTV2.
Bellator 44’s strong showing was up 90% in P18-49, 23% in M18-34 and 77% in overall viewership. The replay delivered 145,000 viewers which is more than the original showing of Bellator 41.
Payout Perspective:
A very solid showing and good news for Bellator. The ratings, including the replay, show a breakthrough in the mediocre ratings. Bellator 44 ran relatively unopposed to any other live sports on television so maybe that helped. It will be interesting to see if Bellator can continue this week with the ratings.
This is great news for Bellator and the fight cards their presenting seem to be getting better and better. Im still confused on how they make any money. Their production costs are picked up by MTV2 but their fighters payouts seem to be so excessive. It would be interesting to see just how much sponsorship money is made since they are on every week. I know they normally get a set cost for having the fight at a casino but it still doesnt add up with all the costs of running an organization.