Bellator will be available in Latin America starting this Friday, February 28th via Fox Sports. The company was originally scheduled to begin airing in 2015, but a new agreement has it available this Friday.
Via Bellator press release:
Through this new agreement, FOX Sports has acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast all 2014 Bellator live MMA events in Latin America. The agreement also includes airing 2014 Bellator content in Brazil, with a combined distribution of more than 50 million households in the entire region. The original deal began in October of 2013 with FOX Sports airing Bellator specials and now beginning in 2014, fans of mixed martial arts will have access to more than 25 live Bellator events per year on FOX Sports.
“We couldn’t have been happier with this new alliance,” said Francisco Pazmiño, SVP Programming and Acquisitions FOX Sports Latin America, “We are extremely excited to start our partnership a year earlier than expected. The response in the region has been fantastic. Live Bellator MMA fights will certainly strengthen our FOX Combat brand positioning, by offering our viewers the most exciting MMA fights combined with other great combat content currently airing on our networks in the region”
Payout Perspective:
This is good news for Bellator as it will be a big week for the company with the start of its 10th Season. You may recall that the partnership was to begin with Bellator’s first PPV on November 2nd last year. The new agreement sets its footprint in the region and it will compete for space with the UFC there.
This surprises me… considering the reach that Fox Sports has in Latin America (Pretty much even with ESPN Latin America) It would have made sense for the UFC to also partner with them. But maybe their deal with Televisa Deportes Network (TDN) is exclusive.
The problem with TDN are two things; 1. it’s on a special package on a satellite subscription which is outrageously expensive, so not many people have it or even know that channel exists. 2. TDN is a very México centric channel & while it has great reach in Central America it doesn’t have that big of a presence in South America, on the otherhand Fox Sports and ESPN are absolutely everywhere.
Even though the UFC has had a big impact in Latin America, especially in México & Brasil, it wouldn’t surprise me if Bellator starts gaining serious ground on them.
What the eff is going on here? Unless the UFC is already shown in as many countries as this deal would be, it would seem to make little sense for Fox to do business with Bellator.
AK,
I’m guessing that the UFC already has deals in place with other networks in Latin America, so for Fox Sports LA to show MMA they have to go with Bellator. It’s definitely weird that Fox will be pushing the UFC in the US and their main competitor in Latin America.