UFC on Fox Sports Ratings (12/30 – 1/05)

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 12/30 – 1/05.

 

UFC on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday Night Block (1/01):
– UFC Fight Night (repeat): 105,000 viewers (10:00AM-1:00 PM)
– UFC Tonight: 182,000 viewers (1:00-2:00 PM)
– UFC Fight Night (repeat): 291,000 viewers (2:00-5:00 PM)
– UFC Reloaded: 349,000 viewers (5:00-8:00 PM) *
– UFC Reloaded: 343,000 viewers (8:00-11:00 PM)
– Fox Sports Live: 57,000 viewers (11:00-12:00 PM)

UFC on Fox Sports 1 Friday Night Block (1/03):
– UFC Unleashed: 129,000 viewers (7:00-8:00 PM).
– UFC Reloaded: 289,000 viewers (8:00-11:00 PM).
– Fox Sports Live: 38,000 viewers (11:00 PM – 12:00 AM)

* FS1 2nd highest viewership of the week.

Other Key Programming Notes :
– Ultimate Insider (1/05) on FS2 drew 24,000 viewers.
– UFC Ultimate 100 Knockouts (12/31) on FS2 drew 65,000 viewers. *
– Best of PRIDE FC (12/30) on FS2 drew 16,000 viewers.
– Golden Boy Boxing (12/30) on FS1 drew 165,000 viewers.
– Supercross (1/04) on FS1 drew 404,000 viewers.**

*  FS2 viewership high for the week.
** FS1 viewership high of the week.

…

Fox Sports 1 & 2 Weekly Totals:
– Fox Sports 1 Primetime Viewership: 182,000 (last week: 279,000)
– Fox Sports 2 Primetime Viewership: 13,000 (last week: 19,000)

Ratings provided by Nielsen TV Ratings & Fox Sports.

 

Payout Perspective:

This week we saw the viewership boost from the previous week come down back to earth, as last week was boosted greatly by UFC 168 programming. This week, the primetime viewership averaged 182,000 viewers, a decrease from the 279,000 average viewers the previous week. In December, primetime viewership on FS1 had declined from 514,000 to 144,000, a 72% drop, until last week. Without the UFC 168 push it received last week and without any live UFC events, FS1 viewership numbers fell below 200,000 once again. For New Years Day on Wednesday, FS1 aired a UFC marathon which drew pretty good numbers for the station and helped boost the ratings.

Fox Sports 2 primetime viewership this week dipped from 19,000 the previous week to 13,000, which is typical due to the small viewership numbers for the network. The FS2 high for the week was UFC Ultimate 100 Knockouts, which only drew 65,000 on Tuesday.

The debut of Supercross claimed the highest viewership on FOX Sports 1 this week with 404,000 viewers.  Still, UFC programming claimed 7 out of the top 10 most watched programs for the week. Remarkably, UFC had no live events this week and still claimed 70% of the top ten most watched programs on FS1, though the most watched UFC program this week only drew 349,000 viewers.