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 edition, we will be looking at the UFC on FOX sports network ratings for the week of 1/06 – 1/19.
Week: (1/6 – 1/12)
UFC on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday Night Block (1/08):
– Big East Basketball: 73,000 viewers (7:00-9:00 PM)
– Best of UFC 2013: 160,000 viewers (9:00-11:00 PM)
– Fox Sports Live: 50,000 viewers (11:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
UFC on Fox Sports 1 Friday Night Block (1/10):
– Daytona Preseason: 320,000 viewers (1:00-5:00 PM) **
– Crowd Goes Wild: 55,000 viewers (5:00 – 6:00 PM)
– FOX Football Daily: 43,000 viewers (6:00 – 7:00 PM)
– Daytona Preseason: 130,000 viewers (7:00 – 8:00 PM)
– UFC Reloaded: 367,000 viewers (8:00-11:00 PM) *
– Fox Sports Live: 38,000 viewers (11:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
* = FS1 highest viewership of the week… ** = FS1 second highest viewership of the week.
Other Key Programming Notes :
– Ultimate Insider (1/11) on FS1 drew 48,000 viewers.
– Best of UFC 2013 (1/8) on FS2 drew 52,000 viewers. ^
– Best of PRIDE FC (1/06) on FS2 drew 13,000 viewers.
– Golden Boy Boxing (1/06) on FS1 drew 113,000 viewers.
– Supercross (1/11) on FS1 drew 283,000 viewers.
^ FS2 viewership high for the week.
…
Fox Sports 1 & 2 Weekly Totals (1/6 – 1/12):
– Fox Sports 1 Primetime Viewership: 168,000 (last week: 182,000)
– Fox Sports 2 Primetime Viewership: 25,000 (last week: 13,000)
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Week: (1/13 – 1/19)
UFC on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday Night Block (1/15):
– UFC Tonight: 123,000 viewers (3:00-4:00 PM)
– UFC Fight Night Pre-fight Show: 89,000 viewers (4:00-5:00 PM)
– UFC Fight Night Prelims: 220,000 viewers (5:00-7:00 PM)
– UFC Fight Night: 629,000 viewers (7:00-10:00 PM) *
– Ultimate Fighter Nations: 371,000 viewers (10:00-11:00 PM) **
– Fox Sports Live: 259,000 viewers (11:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
UFC on Fox Sports 1 Friday Night Block (1/17):
– Barrett-Jackson: 242,000 viewers (2:00-9:00 PM)
– Ultimate Fighter Nations (repeat): 109,000 viewers (9:00-10:00 PM)
– UFC Main Event: 200,000 viewers (10:00-11:00 PM)
– Fox Sports Live: 40,000 viewers (11:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
* = FS1 highest viewership of the week… ** = FS1 second highest viewership of the week.
Other Key Programming Notes :
– PAC-12 College Basketball (1/16) on FS1 drew 318,000 viewers.
– Ultimate Insider (1/19) on FS1 drew 41,000 viewers.
– UFC Unleashed (1/14) on FS2 drew 46,000 viewers.
– Barrett-Jackson (1/14) on FS2 drew 106,000 viewers. ^
– Best of PRIDE FC (1/13) on FS2 drew 22,000 viewers.
– Golden Boy Boxing (1/13) on FS1 drew 143,000 viewers.
– Supercross (1/18) on FS1 drew 284,000 viewers.
^ FS2 viewership high for the week.
Fox Sports 1 & 2 Weekly Totals (1/13 – 1/19):
– Fox Sports 1 Primetime Viewership: 206,000 (last week: 168,000)
– Fox Sports 2 Primetime Viewership: 26,000 (last week: 25,000)
Ratings provided by Nielsen TV Ratings & Fox Sports.
Payout Perspective:
From January 6 to January 12, the primetime viewership for FS1 dropped to a lowly 168,000 viewers, a decrease from 182,000 viewers the previous week. In December, primetime viewership on FS1 declined from 514,000 to 144,000, which is roughly a 72% drop. Without any live UFC events this week, FS1 viewership numbers fell below 200,000 once again. The highest rated program for the week was UFC Reloaded, which drew 367,000 viewers. The most watched non-UFC program this week was Daytona Preseason which drew 320,000 viewers. Supercross produced another good number as well as it drew 283,000 viewers on Saturday.
Fox Sports 2 primetime viewership the week increased from 13,000 the previous week to 25,000, which is typical due to the small viewership numbers for the network. The FS2 high for the week was Best of UFC 2013 on Wednesday at 1AM, which drew 52,000.
UFC programming only claimed 4 out of the top 10 most watched programs on FS1 for the week, though they claimed the most watched event for the week on FS1 from UFC Reloaded, which drew 367,000 viewers.
***
From January 13 to January 19, the primetime viewership for FS1 was 206,000 viewers, an increase from the 182,000 viewers it drew the previous week. With a live UFC events this week, FS1 viewership numbers just climbed over the 200,000 mark once again. The highest rated program for the week was UFC Fight Night, which drew 629,000 viewers and the Ultimate Fighter Nations debut, which drew 371,000. The most watched non-UFC program this week was Pac-12 Basketball, which drew 318,000 viewers. Barrett-Jackson live on Sunday drew 287,000 viewers while Supercross produced another good number, drawing 284,000 viewers on Saturday.
Fox Sports 2 primetime viewership the week increased from 25,000 the previous week to 26,000, which is the typical range due to the small viewership numbers for the network. The FS2 high for the week was Barrett-Jackson, which claimed a viewership high of 106,000 on Tuesday, but also took second (95,000), third (85,000), and fourth place (80,000) for most watched on the network. Coming in fifth is the highest rated UFC show on FS2 for the week, which was a UFC FS1 Fight Night repeat, drawing 68,000 viewers.
UFC programming only claimed 5 out of the top 10 most watched programs on FS1 for the week, even though they claimed the two most watched event for the week on FS1 with the live UFC Fight Night event (629,000) and the debut of TUF Nations (371,000).
Nascar season is only a few weeks away. It will be interesting to see if all the Nascar shoulder programming (like qualifying) does any better on FS1 than it did on Speed in previous years.
Supercross in an interesting niche sport. It has a difficult problem on TV, though. It’s too hard for casual viewers to tell what’s going on. Even the basics, like who is winning, is confusing to casuals. And the motorcycles are cool, but they don’t provide enough surface area for ads like with Nascar, which limits investment from sponsors to help grow the sport. So casuals checking it out just see all these multi-colored bikes flying all over the screen. Kinda neat, kinda confusing.
In many ways I’d think Supercross should be able to sell itself better. It often has spectacular wrecks and the guys bump into each other a lot. It can be quite dramatic once you know who is who and what is what. But there’s a high barrier to the casual sports fan — even fans of other motorsports.