Ratings for the UFC on Fox 4 received an average viewership rating of 2.435 million viewers which is higher than first reported. In addition, MMA Junkie reports the Prelims on Fuel TV received an all-time average high of 194,000 viewers.
The final numbers for UFC on Fox 4 came out better than UFC on Fox 3 by 1 percent. In addition, the 3 hour Prelim show scored the best rating average for a prelim show on the Fox network (including FX). The previous top prelim show was UFC on FX 1 which averaged 148,00 viewers.
Via Fox:
The UFC on FOX event broadcast on Saturday, Aug. 4, averaged a 1.4/3 household rating/share, and 2.44 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Despite immense Olympic competition, the UFC event posted a slightly higher audience (2.44 million vs. 2.42 million), and came within one tenth of a point in rating (1.4 vs. 1.5), compared to the last UFC on FOX event on May 5. Men 18-34, the key male demographic category for UFC programming, posted a significant +19% increase over May’s card (1.9 vs. 1.6), and for the week in prime time, the UFC on FOX event ranked #9 among Men 18-34 and was the highest-rated non-Olympic program in this category.
Saturday night’s UFC on FOX coverage grew steadily throughout the broadcast and peaked at a 2.0/4 (3.3 million) at 10:00 PM ET. Las Vegas led all local markets with a 4.6/9, followed by Louisville (3.0/5), New Orleans and Tulsa (2.8). Markets showing the most improvement since May were West Palm Beach (+138%), Indianapolis (+133%) and Birmingham (+110%). Top market New York was up +55% and host market Los Angeles was up +25% compared to the May event.
Through its first four events, the UFC on FOX is averaging a 2.0/4 in households with 3.5 million viewers with the main male demographics posting a 2.5 for both Men 18-34 and Men 25-54 and a 2.4 for Men 18-49.
Payout Perspective:
While the main card numbers are still low the slight bump was nice. The bigger story was that the Prelim average was strong considering it being a 3 hour broadcast and in the mid-afternoon on the west coast. It could be that the prelims provided some “Olympic relief” before the bigger events in prime time. The good news is that the strong ratings mean we will see more prelims and better matchups (hopefully) on the prelim show.
“the slight bump was nice. The bigger story was that the Prelim average was strong”
LOL at this spin.
The bump made a huge difference. One thing that was really a bummer about the first report is it didnt show any signs of the action in the cage. This shows the fights was bringing them in as the show went on. To match or beat the last Fox event with the Olympics going on is very positive. Even with the worse card i expected the fights to lift this cards rating to the last card and it appears it did. I believe if the fights had not been so great this event would have had maybe less than 2 million average. Depending on what the ratings where for the first quarter hour. With a 3.3 million peak the show had to have owned with low numbers.
If any other promotion had these shit numbers the mma media would have a frenzy. The spin is always strong with Zuffa, sad we can’t get some real reporting because everyone is scared of a backlash.
BTW the numbers were garbage, just like they reported the Elite XC numbers were garbage and those were higher.
Not trying to say it was a tremendous rating or anything, but I pose this questions sincerely):
– If FOX was not pleased with the performance (particularly with the key demographic, is it more likely they would:
A. Put out a press release proclaiming their pleasure with the rating, particularly in a key demographic.
Or
B. Just not make any public statement at all.
Weezy02,
FOX did not send out a press release after UFC on FOX 3. I figured they sent this one out at least saying they were up (slightly by the narrowest of margins) from the last event. Not sending a PR for the last two events when their policy is to do so wouldn’t look too good. Plus, they have the Olympics to fall back on this time around, so a little more cushion for the blame.
Fair point. Keep up the good coverage. Any word on FUEL TV’s efforts to get picked up by more carriers? Would it be more toward the end of the year that carriers could make the decision to carry the channel?
I don’t have any idea what kind of numbers they were expecting, but the Olympics HAD to have a significant impact on this card. I’m not going to sit here and pretend this is some blowout success, but when 28 million people are watching sports on another network, it definitely affects your sports programming.
FuelTV will kill the UFC.
They can’t get traction or sustained popularity on that channel with no distribution.