MMA Weekly reports that Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey received only 431,000 viewers Saturday night. The ratings are indicative of previous Strikeforce shows on Showtime. UPDATE: The ratings peaked at 504,000 viewers during main event.
Via MMA Weekly:
That number is fairly typical for a Strikeforce event on Showtime. The promotion hit its peak viewership with Fedor vs. Silva early in 2011, drawing 741,000 viewers. Other more common showings for Strikeforce were the likes of Henderson vs. Feijao at 412,000, Diaz vs. Daley at 528,000, and Melendez vs. Masvidal at 460,000.
Payout Perspective:
The numbers could be good or bad depending what you think of a women’s bout as the main event. The last time Showtime featuring a women’s main event with this much hype was Gina Carano facing Cyborg Santos back in August 2009 where that show received 576,000 viewers. 431,000 viewers is low and considering Dana White is stepping back from providing input could mean that we’ll see the product whither away. Let’s hope that its not the case as Rousey and Tate proved that there should be some platform for women’s MMA. With the peak of 504,000 viewers occurring during the main event, it shows that the marketing/promotion for the main event worked and that there is a market for women’s MMA. Hopefully, Zuffa will continue to stick with women’s MMA and it will evolve into something that viewers will want to see.
I agree with Dana on the state of Womens MMA but i do think this was a great fight between two girls who have real fighting mentality and very competitive which is rare in the division. Also like the real tension between the two and the attitude Rousey shows and aggression in the fight. I am suprised the ratings werent better. I am very suprised the word of mouth didnt help the peak better than it did. Evens always go up at the end of any event. I think this actually did worse. granted the fight didnt last long but you think the hype and the novelty of it would have drawn more interest at the end. Fedor vs Hendo peaked at 770K which was 200K more than the average. Granted this wasnt going to reach those numbers but you would think word of mouth would have done better than 70K viewers above the average. That shows a possible turn off to female MMA. If they two were guys with this drama and build up and with the dramatic finish it would have had a huge peak at the end. It seems once people heard it was girls fighting they didnt tune in. Everyone who watched was talking about the arm bar. So it had word of mouth but just lots of people are not interested.
I tend to be a bottom line person. From Showtime’s perspectie, the bottom line is this:
1. Although ratings on Showtime aren’t as high as 2011 (when expenses for Strikeforce were WAY out of line with revenues), ratings so far in 2012 (through two shows) is higher than 2010 when Showtime was paying almost $8 million. Now they’re paying less than $5 million and getting higher ratings.
2. Also, their ROI compared to boxing is favorable. The ratings for Rousey vs. Tate weren’t too far off of Ward vs. Froch, yet expenses were far lower and they drew a younger audience.
Anyway, just my .02 cents.
Rousey vs. Tate drew more fans than the following Strikeforce events on Showtime from recent years:
2008:
Shamrock vs. Le (under 300,000 viewers)
2009: (Rousey vs. Tate would’ve been # 2 show in 2009)
Shamrock vs. Diaz (384,000 viewers)
Shields vs. Lawlor (275,000 viewers)
Le vs. Smith (341,000 viewers)
2010: (Rousey vs. Tate would’ve been # 2 show in 2010)
Overeem vs. Rogers (308,000 viewers)
Lawlor vs. Sobral (164,000 viewers)
Emelianenko vs. Werdum (412,000 viewers)
Lawal vs. Feijao (367,000 viewers)
Diaz vs. Noons 2 (350,000 viewers)
Henderson vs. Sobral (341,000 viewers)