MMA Junkie reports that Bellator 70 received a meager 119,000 viewer average as it ended its sixth season. The average for 70 is 90,000 viewers less than the week before.
Bellator 69: 209,000 viewers
Bellator 68: 169,000 viewers
Bellator 67: 165,000 viewers
Bellator 66: 109,000 viewers
Bellator 65: 163,000 viewers
Bellator 64: 175,00 viewers
Bellator 63: 140,000 viewers
Bellator 62: 175,000 viewers
Bellator 61: 108,000 viewers
Bellator 60: 169,000 viewers
The sixth season final average was 155,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
We may attribute Memorial Day weekend for the low numbers. It’s too bad considering it was the Lightweight and Heavyweight finals. Unfortunately, the numbers didn’t end up on a positive note as Bellator had hoped. The sixth season continued with the fluctuations in viewership which may concern Bellator execs but as we all know its building its audience in preparation for its move to Spike TV.
Even if you add in the viewers who might have watched the main card on spike.com, this is pathetic. The idea that they’ll rebound and grab a decent audience on Spike after January 1 might be unrealistic, especially if they do like last year and finish their fall “season” only to go on hiatus for four months.
I’m really having a hard time imagining any way they can grow as a promotion as long as they continue making the same sorts of business decisions they’ve made so far. I almost dread thinking what their reality show will be like if their mismanagement to date is any indication (if they’re even going to have a reality show, that is). I guess I’ve lost every shred of optimism I ever had about the promotion.
This is just another sign that interest in MMA is dropping. TV viewership, PPV-numbers, live gates – everything is down accross the board.
I’m noticing that there are less pubs in my area showing UFC cards and even the pubs that do have less people in the place.
Most of my friends are paying less attention to the sport, not buying PPVs, and I feel myself starting to head in that direction as well.
Reality check, all the above was unthinkable 3 or 4 years ago.
They need the UFC to become relevant. With TUF ratings sucking and Bellator unable to pay big money to any stars, a tournament win garnering a UFC contract would make sense. They put on good fights and do a good job of getting fights and exposure for some really good prospects, but long-term, all the top talent wants into the UFC where the big money is.
2013 will be the year that counts. Nothing to see here.
I agree with Simpson, but still. There is no reason why Bellator shouldn’t be showing at least modest improvement from season to season and they just aren’t getting any traction.
Fact is people dont like what they see. Not only do they have numbers that you think could go any lower in the mid 250K but they have managed to turn a huge number of them away. Something that should not be happening with the name fighters they have had. But when you promote an idea rather than a person you cant expect people to care. There entire promotion is chaos from the match making, who gets in tournys, who wins them, who gets title shots, when the champ fights, non title fights, etc. It has long been said that tournaments are mostly luck. The rest of the world runs of match making and match ups. It is left to chance for the most part in Bellator. Who got the easier road, who got the best style match up, etc is all by chance. Then they run non title fights and sometimes the champ loses and keeps the belt. All of this puts out the perception that the fights dont matter at all and removes much of the skill factor. They appeal to those who just want to see fights not particular fighters or fights. This would have worked 5 years ago or longer. But there is to much MMA on tv for that to work now. I get 1000 hours a month of UFC on free tv. I get NAAFS on FSN, Strikeforce, and then i watch streams and dvds of fights. I get enough fights. Bellator needs to give me a reason to watch THEIR fights and i cant think of 1 reason.