MMA Fighting reports that UFC on Fuel TV 5 ratings for Saturday afternoon garnered a 111,000 viewers and a 0.25 rating. But, the Saturday night replay ratings did better than the live broadcast.
According to MMA Fighting the Saturday night replay which aired from 10pm-1am in the east and 7pm-10pm on the west coast scored 140,000 viewers with a 0.29 rating.
Payout Perspective:
Obviously more people had time Saturday night to watch the fights than in the afternoon. Yet, I understand the reason why Fuel ran it live on Saturday afternoon. UFC on Fuel 4 (San Jose, CA) scored 211,000 viewers in comparison which had a Weidman-Munoz main event on a Wednesday night. Also, UFC on Fuel 3 (Fairfax, VA) earned an average of 173,000 viewers. The overseas cards do not do as well ratings-wise as those in the States which may account for the ratings in addition to the stiff competition from college football.
I didnt know it was in another country. Knew it was on and just assumed it was the normal time. I clicked over to Fuel and caught the end of the POST fight show that come on right before the replay and it spoiled the main event for me lol. So i didnt know about the first showing and even then i would have waited for the second showing because thats when i can get to work and wait for my friends to come and watch with me. We cant get together for the first show.
I think this event would have done the same numbers as past events if it was just tape delayed at night and not airred early on. The night ratings were stronger anyway and at least half the early ratings would have watched later if they had to.
Does anyone know when contracts for FOX will be renegotiated with major carriers? For some reason I was thinking it would be in December. It will be interesting to see if FUEL TV gets picked up and made available in more cable/satellite sports tier packages.
The big staller is Comcast, and I don’t see them adding FUEL to their lineup for the following reason:
Comcast owns a majority stake in NBC/Universal, and won’t want to support a fledgling NewsCorp (FOX) property when the demand for the channel is very, very small AND they’re dipping their toes back into the MMA game with the WSOF deal for NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus). FUEL is a channel that has the potential to directly compete with channels like NBC Sports Network if it can get into more households, so why add the channel when the demand isn’t sufficient enough that they’re losing subscribers? It’s better to deny FUEL access to Comcast customers and hopefully funnel Comcast’s potential audience for FUEL into the WSOF on NBC Sports Network and see how it performs. How much time will need to go by without FUEL gaining a bigger foothold before FOX realizes the UFC content isn’t giving the channel a further reach? Another year?
That’s exactly it Machiel!
People forget that the ecosystem of cable systems has changed dramatically in the last decade. This will put a strict cap on Fuel’s reach forever.