MMA Fighting reports on the Bellator press conference held Monday at its headquarters in Newport Beach, California. Among the topics included the price point of the PPV being somewhere between $35 and $45.
Rebney indicated that it would be up to the individual distributors of the PPV to decide on the final price point. In addition, he indicated that championship bouts would occur on the card along with Rampage-Tito in the main event. Shoulder programming would promote the event and its likely we’ll see more of Rampage and Tito on other Viacom shows including Spike TV’s TNA Wrestling. Similar to the UFC, Bellator will have prelims air on cable network as Bellator plans to show prelims on Spike.
He also stated that Bellator would not go into the business of monthly PPVs and would only hold these “when it makes sense.”
Payout Perspective:
We shall see how much DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner, etc. decide to price the Bellator PPV. Its likely that they would have one price for non-HD and one for HD. The Invicta PPV which was promoted as a $15 PPV actually was charged by some distributors at $25 for HD. We might see the same scenario here (i.e. $45 non-HD, $50 or $55 for HD). The card will need to be stacked for fans to order this PPV which Bellator intends to do with multiple championship fights planned. Moreover, if the UFC decides to counter program with either a rerun of a recent PPV (Silva-Weidman I or Cain-JDS III or GSP-Hendricks for example) on Fox Sports 1 the same night or move its “Fight For the Troops” card to November 2nd, the same night as Bellator’s PPV, this could really hurt Bellator’s PPV.
How stacked can they really make it though? Sure Chandler/Eddie, Curran/Frodo, Mo/Newton interim title fights I expect on the card and for hardcore fans Chandler/Eddie and Curran/Frodo are good fights but how much will that really help?
Casual fans dont know or care about Curran vs Frodo. And it says alot that two old washed up fighters who both lost 3 in a row are headlining over Bellators champs, says to me Bellator belts mean jack shit.
Also this PPV is gonna hurt the upcoming season by taking away good main event title fights from cards, fights they need with the move to Fridays. Fridays is gonna be a tough night anyway and now instead of giving them CHandler and CUrran and Mo you are gonna give them what? Vladdy vs M Pumbu? I mean thats the main event for the first Friday SPike card.
So they are gonna hurt the upcoming season when they need the ratings and all for a PPV that isnt even gonna crack 200k buys. I say 200k if they are lucky. Then you price it at 35-50 bucks.
I dont think the UFC counters with a live event, FS1 probably has some sort of college football that night anyway but if not they could run a PPV replay. First GSP/hendricks wouldnt have happened yet and no way they would replay Cain/JDS 3 two weeks after the card aired.
Maybe you could get a highlight of recent fights like Silva/Weidman, Jones/Gus, Bendo/pettis, Aldo/Zombie and do 4 fight highlight show of the past months PPV main events but I doubt they do it.
I wonder if they would think about moving up the Nov 6th card and maybe do a Vitor/Hendo type fight night to steal some attention and viewers. It would def hurt Bellator.
HAHAHAHAHA! Menstruating Chris back at it.
I don’t get these MMA fans, they claim to support all MMA but when Bellator comes along with a PPV they do their best to crap all over it. Clowns ain’t nothing but Dana White lap dogs.
Anymore than 30 is pushing it. UFC already gets over charging 50+. These companies have some nerve.
If this PPV does well it will be a great thing for MMA in general, it will mean that Viacom will see a return to its investment and will be willing to invest more heavily into MMA. I think the key here is going to be pricing, a lot of fans will not be willing to spend close to what they spend for a UFC event, 39.95 for HD & 29.95 for Standard seems like a good compromise.
I don’t see this PPV doing well at all. UFC’s PPVs aren’t doing well and right now Bellator only has one fight announced and no definite price with the expected range already being too high.
If Affliction couldn’t survive on PPV which occurred during an MMA boom time how is Bellator going to do well?
Not to mention the other bad decisions Bellator has made recently like constantly changing what day of the week their events are going to be on. Their ratings on wednesdays have not been as good as the “beef thursdays”. And the fall season starts off on a saturday, but then switches to friday after that which makes no sense. MMA all around, whether UFC of Bellator, looks like it is going to go further down the popularity chain.
It is weird how so called MMA fans like to see Bellator fail though. Maybe they are just ZUFFA employees covering all the mma sites to shout down bad UFC news.
UFC 163 prelim ratings sucked by the way.
Affliction didn’t have the backing of a massive multinational corporation like bellator does. that is the difference. I’m interested to see if it makes a difference. as was said this will be huge for mma if it is a duccess so I’m definitely rooting g
for it. of course ufc shills will root against it.
if websites don’t toe the zuffa line white can deny them credentials and essentially bury them.
I want to see them fail so I get to see better fights. I don’t think much of Chandler or Alverez. Even if I did that is the only meaningful fight either will have. While the fans of the sport are denied good fights involving them. All because of morons who think Competition is good with no facts to back it up. Those same guys in the UFC create dozens of interesting match ups.
I agree with Chris. The once chance in Hell Bellator had was to put their big fights on Spike and hope to grow their brand and draws big ratings. Now they are watering down Spike live events just to run a PPV. More than likely they are going to put 4 would be headliners of live free events on this PPV. Even worse is all those fighters when on Spike were lucky to draw 500K viewers. When you break it down that is around 200K households for free. Viewers don’t matter for PPV because they only order 1 PPV per household. It wont matter that there are 3 people in each house watching. So if only 200 house holds watch for free. What makes them think half that will pay for it on PPV?
I love when new promotions start up. I love it even more when they go belly up. Even better when its their own stupidity that does it. Then the UFC grabs up all their over hyped fighters and we get super fights in the UFC. This is good for the sport and the fans. The only thing that would be bad for the sport is one of these promotions actually has success and hangs around preventing us from getting ALL possible fights.
Competition is healthy, and i point to teddy roosevelt busting up railroad monopolies so they couldn’t do whatever they pleased simply because they would have been the only ones on the block.
Bs has yet to prove competition is unhealthy. She thinks if she keeps saying it people will start to believe.
I didn’t say all monopolies are good. But in sports they are. I have already shown why they are good in sports especially MMA. Fedor cleaned out Pride years before they went under and he left. There was fresh fights in the UFC we didnt get to see because of Competition. He went all over the world and fought in “competitive” promotions making sure we never got the fights we wanted. If those promotions didn’t exist we would have got the fights. Because of competition we got a weaker product while we pay the same price.
Competition spreads talent thin and runs salaries up which again dilutes the product for fans and runs up their cost. Breaking up a railroad monopoly helps the consumer. They get lower costs when one company tries to beat another. The public gets better trains for the same reason. Because those resources are not limited. However the athletes are not renewable. When you take a fighter from the UFC because of Comp. He is replaced by someone who wasn’t good enough to be there before.
You know I am right but you cant bring yourself to admit it. You cling to the red herring of money bringing in better athletes. Which again I proved wrong and you have no proof of it ever being the case.
“I want to see them fail so I get to see better fights.”
Dana already promised to get us great matchups that people have wanted to see and failed to do it after the demise of the other various major MMA organizations. I don’t expect it to get better if Bellator dies. Most cards these days suck because we aren’t getting the matchups anybody wants to see.
UFC fanboys on the attack lol
We didn’t see fedor vs couture (the biggest fight that never happened) cuz ufc didn’t wanna co-promote with m1(fedors masters). Period.
bs: i disagree with your entire assessment of the sport, and the ufc on particular.i can’t convince you because you are a zuffa shill/plant/stooge.
I can’t stand when people call white “Dana” as if he were madonna or sting. or as if you are personal friends of his. its sad how much reverence you people have for that scumbag.
If you want better fights go back in time and tell your boy dana to let couture fight fedor. Its not about the fights to you, its about pushing a pro ufc point of view. bs, you are the fox news of mmapayout.
LOL
Mr. Sampson all you do is crap all over anything UFC. When anything posted about Bellator you either dont post or say some stupid. When someone challanges your logic your reply ufc fanboys or i win. Do 98% of poeple who visit this website and jump of a cliff.
“Dana already promised to get us great matchups that people have wanted to see and failed to do it after the demise of the other various major MMA organizations. I don’t expect it to get better if Bellator dies. Most cards these days suck because we aren’t getting the matchups anybody wants to see.”
Oh really? What about Chuck vs Wandy? Mir vs Nog? Hendo vs Franklin? Couture vs Nog? Mir vs Barnett? Tito vs Lil Nog? I could go on and on.
The only reason Fedor fights didn’t happen was because he had competition to hide in and avoid the UFC. IF there wasn’t competition he would have had to come to the UFC. So thanks for proving my point for me.
“I can’t stand when people call white “Dana” as if he were madonna or sting. or as if you are personal friends of his. its sad how much reverence you people have for that scumbag”
You call him by his first name in almost every post you dumbass. In fact you do so in your last comment. hahahaha
Those matches you mentioned happened several years too late with only 1 having title implications as a result of heavies being scarce. Ufc was protecting their guys and themselves like scared little girls. I don’t see why the onus was on fedor to come to the ufc. he was already far and away the best heavy as his #1 ranking indicated. He had nothing to prove.
I called him dana to mock you. but you aren’t clever enough to see. i always refer to him as white.
No you don’t and there is many posts on this site to prove it. Also #1 by whose rankings? That’s right. There isn’t one. Every rankings at the time is no better than mine, your, or anyone’s. In which I rank him outside the top 10 just to spite you. Second of all the onus is on him to come to the UFC. There was a lot of talk before he went to Affliction of dropping him from the rankings. Because the lack of competition. A lot of fans were talking about it. His 2 fights in Affliction quited the talks a little. But it shows he didn’t have as much leverage as you claim. Fedor was only the real #1 for a couple years. He used manipulation to stretch it our for years more. IF you are gullible enough to fall for it be my guest. However I know the sport a lot better than that. Enough to know that when you are ducking match ups and promotions and refuse to give up control of opponents. It is for a very good reason. Because you cant beat everyone!
http://m.sherdog.com/news/rankings/2/Sherdog-Official-Mixed-Martial-Arts-Rankings-15631
Fyi fedor beat the 2 ranked arlovski.
Funny,i don’t see any talk of fedor being dropped from rankings.
Lol at sherdog. So now their rankings are official and “talk” on their forums are meaningful? Hahaha!
Forum talk are meaningful? If you say so.
Thats all you got Sampson? So you read that whole first post and thats all you have to say?
What did I say that isnt true? So you think putting Curran and Chandler/Eddie is gonna double or triple PPV buys? or do you think those fights would be best to help them as they move to Fridays? Cause I hate to break it to you but they just did 398k viewers for Fight Master on Wed, they are now moving to Fridays where their ratings will go down. They have Vladdy vs M Pumbu as the main event of their debut Friday show.
Those other title fights on the PPV would really help them on Spike when they move to Fridays, instead they will be on a PPV that wont even sell 200k buys.
Am I wrong? I dont expect you to answer that cause trolls dont actually give real responses.
Its sad a good site like this is ruined by trolls and idiots like Tops, Samspon, aintitthetruth.
I hate to say it because i wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you really do menstruate chris. The only reason i started posting was cuz I’ve been reading this site for years and felt i couldn’t in good conscience let bs’ bs slide any longer. Besides, its more fun when people disagree. the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
“All because of morons who think Competition is good with no facts to back it up. ”
Uhh, take an Econ 101 course. There are reams of evidence to back it up.
“You know I am right but you cant bring yourself to admit it. You cling to the red herring of money bringing in better athletes. Which again I proved wrong and you have no proof of it ever being the case.”
Please remind me of that proof. I don’t remember you proving a damn thing. Ever.
If you’re going to have a monopoly of owners (e.g. the UFC) then you need to counter it with a monopoly of labor (e.g. a fighter’s union). Otherwise salaries become exploitative (i.e. what we have now in the UFC).
I haven’t made up my mind as to whether UFC salaries are low because the UFC has such pricing power, or because the sport is so small, neither alternative is positive. All I know is that athletes in other sports make much more and it’s frustrating as a fan to hear the pittance that UFC fighters are paid.
Chris,
I think 200k buys for a Bellator PPV would be a grand-slam home run and I agree that it probably won’t happen. And yes it would probably deplete their big fights for the upcoming season, but honestly, I don’t think that will significantly hurt ratings since they don’t seem to be affected by who is fighting. Their ratings are all over the place and seem to be mostly influenced by what show leads and what shows compete with the fights.
I can’t wait to see Dana’s counter. I wonder if Fox will let them. I’m not sure they want to get into a tit-for-tat pissing contest with Viacom, but they have to remember how Spike used to counter the Fox and FX cards early on.
I’m sorry, I meant “White’s counter” not “Dana’s counter”. Make that “Mr. White’s counter”.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
You can literally SEE Christine frothing at that hole she calls a mouth
“Uhh, take an Econ 101 course. There are reams of evidence to back it up.”
That has nothing to do with sports. Which is what I am talking about. Pick up a damn history book and stop regurgitating the same baseless quotes.
“Please remind me of that proof. I don’t remember you proving a damn thing. Ever.”
I have shown plenty of proof. But people like you just claim its coincidence to keep from having to open your eyes. The quality of the UFC product is all the proof I need. If you wasn’t a noob you would have been around when every fight the fans wanted was impossible. I have seen all fights be possible and I have seen them go away and now I have seen them come back. Now they are starting to go away again as Bellator locks up a few talented fighters. This is a direct effect of competition. While it has never lowered costs on my end or raised my entertainment value.
“Otherwise salaries become exploitative (i.e. what we have now in the UFC).”
WTF does that have to do with you? I thought you were a individual? A Human Being? Why are you thinking like a programmed sheep like your goal in like is to serve a person you see on tv? I feel sorry for you and it is deeply troubling that you think like that. Why don’t you just send your money in the mail to the fighter/Man you care for so much? It really is sad that you have been convinced to put a fighters earnings over your own best interests. You do realize every single one of them make more money than you and have a much better life than you will ever have until the day you die. I think your priorities are way off.
“I can’t wait to see Dana’s counter. I wonder if Fox will let them. I’m not sure they want to get into a tit-for-tat pissing contest with Viacom, but they have to remember how Spike used to counter the Fox and FX cards early on.”
I will be a lot different for Viacom to counter with their own low rating promotion rather than last year when they counter programmed with the UFC’s own product. Even to use their PPV card to counter would absolute kill any buys they would have got. But if I was the UFC I would try to counter them. So like you I would like to see what Dana does. Spike drew first blood when it countered the UFC. Now its time for Dana to put his foot on their throats. Now they are defenseless.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=16245086590491173715&hl=en&as_sdt=0,48
The article basically says when you have more choices you end up with a superior product; in this case healthcare. rather than one or a few rising to the top and pumping out an inferior product with no alternative. What was that bs? i can’t hear you. oh, your speechless. it looks like competition is healthy hahaha.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22healthy+competition%22+good+for+the+economy&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C48 actually click on it here. i think the other one just has a preview.
Actually its the first link on http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22healthy+competition%22+good+for+the+economy&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C48 titled what’s holding back healthcare. Just dl the document and read a few pages bs. then come at me with something so i can strike it down.
I have already answered this. Are you having trouble remembering Rain Man? Healthcare is a service. It isn’t limited like fighting talent is. So yes comp would cause all companies to provide a better service because the services and the equipment are unlimited. As long as theire is an effort. Comp helps in that situation. But if something is limited. It becomes spread to thin.
I noticed you once again didn’t use a sports example. I specifically said I was only referring to sports. I never said a monopoly was good outside of sports. Sounds like you are clinging to non sports examples because you know I am right and don’t have a leg to stand on. Where is the AFL? Where is the ABA? Why is those sports bigger without them than when they were around?
Good thing you are a worthless sack of shit and have no value. Because owning you wont effect my taxes for the year.
I will say aintitthetruth you arent as bad as Sampson or Tops, I’ll give you that. They are just trolls who dont contribute anything, you atleast will give an opinion on the actual topic.