MMAPayout will be covering in detail the FOX – UFC TV deal, quarterly and weekly, in order to analyze the performance of both properties throughout the lifespan of the TV deal. In this week’s edition, we will be looking at the UFC on FOX sports network ratings for the week of 11/18 – 11/24.
UFC on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday Night Block (11/20):
– UFC Tonight: 136,000 viewers.
– Big East Basketball: 114,000 viewers.
– The Ultimate Fighter (new episode): 510,000 viewers.
– Fox Sports Live 104,000 viewers.
UFC on Fox Sports 1 Sunday (11/24):
– Ultimate Insider: 28,000 viewers.
Other Key Programming Notes :
– UFC Reloaded (11/21) on FS2 drew 59,000 viewers (most watched program on FS2).
– UFC Unleashed (11/20) on FS2 drew 45,000 viewers
Note: UFC’s regular Wednesday night block programming did not air on FS1 due to the Big East college basketball game, which drew 114,000 viewers. The college basketball game was the lead in to TUF this week.
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Fox Sports 1 & 2 Weekly Totals:
– Fox Sports 1 Primetime Viewership: 136,000 (last week: 289,000)
– Fox Sports 2 Primetime Viewership: 28,000 (last week: 9,000)
Ratings provided by Nielsen TV Ratings & Fox Sports.
Payout Perspective:
This was a very slow week for UFC programming on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2, and the viewership numbers for the week indicated just that. With no UFC events and The Ultimate Fighter dropping to 510,000 viewers, Fox Sports 1 saw its third week in a row of declining primetime viewership. In the past three weeks, the network’s primetime viewership has dropped from 630,000 (two weeks ago), to 289,000 (last week), to 136,000 (this week). That’s a substantial drop off after setting their primetime viewership record just two weeks prior (630,000).
On the other hand, Fox Sports 2 was able to increase their primetime viewership from 9,000 last week to 28,000 this week. That can be attributed to showing UFC programming during their primetime blocks every week. Seven out of the top 10 shows on Fox Sports 2 were UFC programming, where UFC Reloaded drew the most viewership for any programming on Fox Sports 2 with 59,000 viewers.
The numbers should pick up some this week with the TUF Finale episode, which aired on Wednesday, and Saturday’s TUF Finale event.
I’m curious: from FOX’s perspective, what is the purpose of Fox Sports 2??
Fs1 and UFC the winning combo…..lol
The ratings for the last episode of TUF must have been really bad, because they still haven’t been reported on by anyone yet.
FS1 is declining for the past few weeks because the Nascar season is over. Nascar and UFC are the only two properties they have that draw any decent-sized audience. Until Nascar restarts at Daytona in February, FS1 only has UFC.
Oh, and the final episode of TUF saw a decent ratings increase.
You need a second sports network in case a game runs long or two sports that you have the rights too start at the same time.
College football sometimes does big ratings on FS1, Oklahoma vs Baylor did 2.1 million viewers meaning it is the most watched telecast on FS1, the previous record was the 1.8 million the Sonnen Vs Shogun fight did.
I remember before they launched they said they will relaunch again Super Bowl week, as that will be by far the most watched telecast regular Fox will until they air it again in 3 years.
MV:
Like duck said, any sort of overlap during live events would force a show to go from FS1 to FS2 and vice versa. This actually occurred this past weekend when the FS1 CFB game went long and the UFC TUF Finale prelims had to start airing on FS2 before switching over to FS1 once the game was done.
The other reason of course is to have more room for exclusive sports programming content. You are right though that FS2 is just sorta there at the moment and not doing much for anyone.
Jose:
Good point. NASCAR definitely has a strong fanbase.