MMA Junkie reports that the UFC 139 Prelims on Spike TV scored an average of 1.2 million viewers. The pre-PPV fights received a 0.9 household rating and won its time slot among male viewers in the 18-34 demographic.
The UFC 139 Prelims were second among males in the 18-49 demographic for the time slot.
The prelims ranked 20th all time among airing the UFC Prelims on Spike TV and ION Television.
Payout Perspective:
Since September’s UFC 135 Prelims, which received the third all-time highest rating (1.6 million), the UFC Prelims have dropped.Even though it did well in its time slot in key demos, comparing UFC 139 Prelims to its predecessors shows that the numbers are decreasing. We may be experiencing some MMA fatigue as some have suggested. The last three prelim shows have ranked no higher than 20th (out of 27 shows) in the history of the UFC Prelims.
I watched it, but only because I wasn’t buying the PPV. Very little interest for the casual or even committed fan. Bader coming off 2 losses against Brilz coming of 2 losses and losses in 3 of 4. I was interested in the McDonald fight, figuring he would dispose of Soto – glad to see him get a finish instead of another decision (prior two fights). I think this helped to promote McDonald but not clear why Bader was here, although there really weren’t any other fights to show (unless you pulled Bonnar or Kampman off the PPV, lol).
If you don’t put on good fights, you aren’t going to get people to tune in. Seriously, which were better fights these two or the top 2 Bellator fights (Bellator).
Respectable number all things considered. Assassin, remember the time when we would have killed for any type of prelim so that we could see the under card from the PPV? I still watch them all but times have certainly changed.
While the primary purpose of the free prelims has been to drive the PPV model and get last second buys (which has happened to me on more than a few occasions when I was on the fence for the buy), with the new 2012 model the “entire” prelim card will now be more geared to creating “event tv” for the non-PPV while building fan bases at the same time. It may take a while for new people to transition from “free” to paid PPV, but it will happen.
Question: Will Fox do a 1 hour prelim show (same 2 fights) for the PPV cards and Fox cards? Or will all of that be carried on Fuel TV.