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 12/09 – 12/15.
UFC on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday Night Block (12/11):
– UFC Tonight: 127,000 viewers (7-8 PM)
– UFC Reloaded: 480,000 viewers (8-11 PM)
UFC on Fox Sports Friday Night Block (12/13):
– UFC on FOX Weigh-Ins on FS1: 44,000 viewers (7-8 PM).
– UFC Tonight: 54,000 viewers (8-9 PM)
– UFC Ultimate 100 Knockouts Replay on FS1: 275,000 viewers (9-10 PM).
– Golden Boy Boxing on FS1: 188,000 viewers (10-1 AM).
UFC on Fox Sports Saturday (12/14):
– UFC on FOX Prelims on FS1: 613,000 viewers (5 – 8PM).
– Big East Basketball on FS1: 212,000 viewers (8 – 10PM).
– FOX Sports Live on FS1: 137,000 viewers (10-11 PM).
Other Key Programming Notes :
– Ultimate Insider (12/15) on FS1 drew 37,000 viewers.
– UFC Unleashed (12/15) on FS1 drew 217,000 viewers.
– UFC Breaking Ground(12/15) on FS2 drew 133,000 viewers.
– UFC Road to the Octagon (12/13) on FS1 drew 44,000 viewers.
– Best of PRIDE FC (12/10) on FS2 drew 48,000 viewers (FS2 viewership high for the week).
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Fox Sports 1 & 2 Weekly Totals:
– Fox Sports 1 Primetime Viewership: 155,000 (last week: 186,000)
– Fox Sports 2 Primetime Viewership: 14,000 (last week: 30,000)
Ratings provided by Nielsen TV Ratings & Fox Sports.
Payout Perspective:
This week is no different than last week, as FOX Sports continued to struggle since TUF and the College Fottball season came to an end. This week, the primetime viewership averaged 155,000 viewers, a drop from the 186,000 average viewers the previous week. In the past three weeks, primetime viewership on FS1 has declined from 514,000 to 155,000, which is roughly a 70% drop. Fox Sports 2 primetime viewership this week also dipped from 30,000 the previous week to 14,000, which is more than 50% but typical due to the small viewership numbers.
Despite the declining primetime viewership numbers for the network, UFC programming claimed the highest viewership on FOX Sports 1 and four out of the top five for the week. What’s even more surprising is that only one out of those 4 were live sport events. Out of the top 5 programs for the week, only the UFC on FOX prelims and the Big East college basketball game on Saturday were live events. The most successful non-live programming was UFC Reloaded, a replay of a previous UFC PPV event, which drew 480,000 viewers.
The most watched non-UFC programming on FS1 for the week was the Big East CBB game on Saturday, which drew 212,000 viewers.
Some surprising high ratings for some of those UFC programs. Golden Boy is struggling.
BS,
Golden Box dips to around 120K for some of their shows and has been around 160K other times. The fact that they are almost around 190K is not bad. Maybe building some momentum.
Also, the UFC programming that tends to do well are UFC PPV replays and Unleashed episodes. Just showing taped fights and recent PPV events makes fans tune in.