MMA Junkie reports the ratings for Saturday night’s Strikeforce event averaged just 310,00 viewers a household rating of 0.82. It was the second lowest rating for an “Arena Series” since 2011
The end of Strikeforce mercifully came to an end as the card which suffered from injuries and one postponement finally occurred.
Via MMA Junkie:
Strikeforce’s five 2012 events averaged 446,000 viewers. Strikeforce’s eight events in 2011 drew an average of 521,000 viewers. The previous event, “Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman,” scored 529,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
Poor ratings considering it occurred during a free preview weekend on Showtime which presumably gave the event a chance for a broader audience. Unfortunately, at least for DirecTV subscribers, HBO, Starz, Cinemax and HBO also held a free preview weekend as well. Thus it may have created an overload of things to choose from. Couple that with the NFL Playoff game between the 49ers versus the Packers and there may have been other distractions from Strikeforce’s last show.
Also, the fact that Strikeforce has not held an event since August hurt. It had no presence on television (i.e., shoulder programming) and thus lacked any buzz for the event. It felt like the last game of the regular season for a team that didn’t make the playoffs.
So, how many of these MMA orgs have come and gone over the last decade? Some were bought by Zuffa, but several of them just folded. Makes you wonder what MMA would have been, if it had been at all, without UFC.
I see Zuffa purchasing Bellator as being one of the big stories for 2013. History shows us we can expect that. In the end it’s only about money.
No way UFC buys Bellator… have you no idea who owns them?
If Bellator ended up consistently losing money, then Viacom would likely be willing to sell the assets (fighter contracts) to Zuffa. I think Bellator will perform just fine in the ratings, especially with the TNA lead-in, and really hope that they start holding events in larger venues.
I don’t foresee any sale between Zuffa and Viacom at all.
It’s a really cheap investment anyhow.
They’d have to consistently bomb in the ratings for Viacom to even consider selling, and that won’t be the case. I think that Bellator should be able to keep a majority of the viewers from the TNA lead-in for the first show, and we’ll see after that.
The UFC would never want to buy Bellator and would never need to. The reason they wont buy Bellator is because they have no assets and they are basically a start up promotions. Buying Bellator would be pointless when Spike can start another promotion and throw it in the same slot and get the same ratings. After all they have almost no names and are only marketing the tournament. So unless there was a clause in the agreement that Spike or Viacom couldnt air any other MMA promotion. It would just be a waste of money as every 12 months they would be back in the same positions.
What the UFC will do it just keep raiding their talent when ever they see fit. Spike will never be able to compete with FOX and there is no chance to match the UFC in the PPV market. So Bellator will never be able to compete with the UFC for contracts. Every time they beat the UFC on a fighter. They lose the money to spend on 20 other fighters the UFC wants from them. Bellator raises prices for the UFC but it also is the other way around too. But the UFC can afford it. Bellator is very limited in what they can spend and how many fighters they can try to out bid the UFC for.
Look at it this way. The money they were forced to big for Alverez or what they will pay Alverez in 1 year will be as much as what they pay almost every fighter on their roster that year combined.
You guys forget that Viacom is much bigger than the UFC. Dana White has admitted this and you clowns just don’t seem to get that when the budget is needed, it will be spent on talent.
UFC is the one in trouble, you guys just don’t know it.
FuelTV has no distribution.
4 FOX shows a year make no impact.
It’s basically FX vs. Spike and Viacom is putting Bellator in heavy rotation while FX isn’t doing the same for UFC.
Still waiting for fuel tv!!! I live in a huge North east Market Fuel tv is a joke