Viacom purchased a majority stake in Bellator this fall and announced that it would move its newest purchase to Spike TV in 2013.
With the UFC looking for a new network dance partner most of 2011, many believed that Bellator would make the move to Spike. The purchase of Bellator confirmed the speculation.
Spike TV has the rights to the UFC library through 2012 and it was thought that Zuffa would purchase the library from Spike but that notion has died down. Spike.com began airing the preliminary fights of Bellator events this year as well.
Ironically, Dana White embraced the Viacom move as the UFC believed that the purchase would ease an FTC investigation and any notion of Zuffa monopolizing the MMA industry. Instead, White described the UFC as a “mom and pop” in comparison to Viacom.
With the Viacom acquisition, it will be interesting to see how much of an investment it puts into Bellator on Spike. Talent acquisitions, production for Bellator programming and marketing should be at the top of the list for improvement for the organization.
Yah that spike is getting Bellatore. Excellent fights. Ufc missing a big audience on Fuel because a lot of people have to pay for the channel and can not see it; so Bellator will win. Last program of mma live uncensored showed one fight from Billings Mt. One fight of a fat overweight fighter who did not listen to his trainers. Called the folks from Billings Rednecks. Really? Apparently did not see the rest of the fights as they were special with fantastic moves and counters, showing fantastic coaching for a small town of 100,000 people. What a joke. Glad they are gone. Love Impact wrestling, Dixie carter,looking forward to Bellator, boxing. Spike is cool for women too. Make that point as the rest of the programming is toward men only. Thanks
Viacom purchasing Bellator is smart as their matches are excellent and UFC has made the mistake of going to Fuel which needs to be purchase to watch. Missing a vast audience of viewers, but spike knows better