MMA Junkie reports that Bellator 59’s ratings this past Saturday received an average of 265,000 viewers. A replay of the event Saturday night received an average of 136,000 viewers.
Bellator also ran an encore showing of the much talked about Alvarez-Chandler fight from Bellator 58. The replay received an average viewership of 237,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
Although Bellator 59 was slightly lower than 58 (269,000 viewers), the numbers are steady. The slight decline this past weekend is likely due to the long weekend and holiday shopping. But still the numbers for the replay of the Alvarez-Chandler fight shows an increase in fan viewership.
If the last two weeks’ ratings have any residual effect, we might see ads on the broadcasts for stuff other than fat burner pills, condoms, and whatever else looks for bargain rates. Then again, a quarter million viewers doesn’t exactly create a stampede of advertisers. If they keep booking their fights on the reservations and other small capacity auditoriums in 2012, it might indicate that they’re just in a holding pattern until they get on Spike. By 2013 the UFC will know how solid its Fox ratings are, and it might be too little too late in the domestic market for Bellator.
Are the numbers available for Epix? I know that since they started broadcasting in Epix, that’s where I’ve been watching (Long Live HD). With such low overall numbers, a modest 50k watching on Epix would be considered a significant addition to Bellator’s viewership.
Looks like 265k-270k is the upper end of the range for good Bellator cards without stiff competition from UFC or other events. I thought BF58 was a much better card and am surprised/pleased that BF59 did so well.
There are a lot of potential improvements to make, let’s see if 2012 is a year of positive change or just year waiting around for 2013 on Spike. Glad they canned the title holders no longer fighting non title fights (of course this only happened because 1 lost, surprised they never thought about what would happen when 1 lost). Also, holding more tournaments in the same season increases the likelihood of more meaningful fights.
I liked some of the additions in talent htis past year, let’s see if they can keep it up. I think it will be difficult as Dana/UFC and SF if they remain, will need lots of fighters to fill all of their cards. Original UFC plans called for 30 cards (5 every 2 months), but schedule released so far has 6 in 1st 2 months and 1 first week of March. Something tells me will see more than 30 UFC cards meaning he needs more fighters. Look at UFC140 card, 3 very good fights, then a lot of guys who could be fighting on SF/Bellator or regional cards.
Plus, this “break” until their next Bellator season is ridiculous. Not big time at all. Maybe not have a card every week, but they have not even announced a start date for Season 6 and UFC has events on 5 of the 8 Saturdays (one event on a Wednesday) not counting 1/1/2012. I hope they do not lose their momentum.
Free MMA is good MMA.