The Sports Business Journal (subscription required) reports that executives for Fox Sports are pleased with the upswing of Fox Sports 1. Although its miles away from competing with ESPN, trends seen by execs point to a promising future.
The article is premised upon the comparison that FS1 has done much better than its predecessor, the Speed Channel. Also, Fox execs are excited about the added distribution (FS1 is now in 87 million homes doubling the amount that had the Speed Channel) and a younger, richer demo which should attract more advertisers.
While the UFC has been a mainstay for FS1 ratings early on, NASCAR has picked up some of the slack recently and the article cites the influx of NASCAR events to help FS1 ratings. The NASCAR ratings likely benefit from the old Speed tie-in.
FS1 is averaging 292,000 viewers in prime time since August 2013 which is up “70 percent versus Speed from a corresponding time period a year earlier.” It also has a better 18-49 prime time demo and a more affluent audience overall.
According to the article, the network is still relying on the strength of the live events it has coming up including MLB, USGA events as well as Sprint Cup and Nationwide races. Of course, its College Football and College Basketball programming has seemingly underperformed.
SBJ lists the 10 most viewed programs on FS1. Notably, the top 3 relate to NASCAR as the Feb. 15th NASCAR Sprint Cup (3.526 million viewers) is the most viewed program since the network’s launch. The Feb. 20th NASCAR Sprint Cup event was second (3.1 million) and was followed by the Fox Sports Live which followed the event (2.272 million). Rounding out the top 5 was the Civil War (Oregon-OSU) on November 29th and Oklahoma-Baylor on November 7th. The August 17th UFC Fight Night was the highest rated UFC event at number 6.
Two other UFC events made the top 10 with the UFC 168 Prelims (1.554 million) at number 8 and the February 15th Fight Night (1.4 million) landed at number 10.
Payout Perspective:
So how does this SBJ article reconcile FS1 executives providing the new network advertisers “make goods” during the World Series? Obviously, NASCAR has helped the ratings with the top 3 highest rated events occurring just last month. College Football and College Basketball have not really done well for the network. The realigned Big East Conference has not attracted a big audience since the big draws (e.g., Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse) are now in the ACC. The Pac 12 Conference is limited in audience as those on the west coast are interested in those teams. We will see if March Madness heats up for college basketball ratings for FS1.
The UFC is still a contributor to the network’s ratings and an attractive property as the network’s viewership falls within the UFC demo. We still see some concern about some of the network’s live programming which may include The Ultimate Fighter series. Notably, Fox is looking at TUF ratings differently after the Rousey-Tate season as it has taken the view of evaluating the performance of the season overall (i.e., DVR ratings, overall viewership including replays) rather than focus on an overnight rating. Overall, the article paints a “glass half-full” perspective on FS1. Certainly, competing with ESPN is not an overnight endeavor as FS1 has found out. Even with the number of homes it is in, its discovered that people will not magically gravitate to the channel. With more new live events coming to the network in the future, it will have to be a wait and see proposition as to its success.
so the overpaid executives who made all the decisions on this project say it doing good Get the fuck outa here!
I love when bums call someone over paid. Lol
BrainSmasher frequently calls top 10 MMA fighters overpaid so I guess he is talking about himself as far as bums go.
Show me an example of calling a top 10 guy over paid. I have no problems with fighters getting what they are worth based on the going rate. My issues are with those who try to manipulate the system by using sheep fans and comparisons to other sports to get more than they are worth. Or worse yet, try to do harm to the sport and their employer in an attempt to get more than market value.
That is a far cry from you cry babies who look at someone who is in a position that is responsible for countless jobs and making lots of people a lot of money. Then down play their value based on your own greed and jealousy.
FS1 has not doubled the # of Speed subscribers. Not even close. A lot of the data seems very suspect.
Back in 2008, Speed was already carried in over 73M homes.
Something is screwy about that data.
Also, Son of the Bronx posts ratings data for FS1 and compares it to a year ago, when it was Speed. It hasn’t been up 70% when I’ve checked. Skeptical of that #, too.
The doubling the subscriber #s appears to be a flat out lie. That did not happen
BS,
The issue is in establishing that market value for fighters. How does a fighter know what value to go for? How does he know if he’s asking for more than he’s worth? The only ones who truly know that are the promoters. The fighters don’t have access to all the financial info, so they are left in a position to ask for as much as they possibly can and it’s up to the promotion to say no if the value is too high. Of course, the promotion will also say no if the value is too low in order to get it even lower, so you can’t very well blame the fighters and accuse them of trying to hurt the sport when they negotiate the best deal possible.
Not enough of your blame is placed on the promotions – if they opened their books and let everyone see the details of their business then fighters would have a better idea of what they were worth. Obviously the UFC won’t do that as most salaries would probably increase if they did.
Diego
It doesn’t matter what the promotion makes. That has nothing to do with the fighters value. The fighters gets to use free agency to see his value. What the UFC makes using them with them brand name is besides the point. That is what the brand is worth not the fighter. You suggesting fighters taking what doesn’t belong to them. That doesn’t work in any line of work. Why shouldn’t the production crew for the UFC be able to do the same thing you suggest for fighters?
“Why shouldn’t the production crew for the UFC be able to do the same thing you suggest for fighters?”
Nobody buys a PPV or turns the channel to FS1 to see Craig Borsari. The UFC brand is worthless without the fighters. The UFC brand is only worth something today because of previous and current fighters.
Millions didn’t watch the superbowl to see a matchup between Paul Allen and Pat Bowlen or John Schneider and John Elway.
A pretty simple concept to understand.
Hey BS personal question? What kind of medication do you take? you are clearly a delusional fool on most topics! Get with reality son
Go watch old KOTC events and see if anyone would pay $50 for that production. Then come back to me when You dumbass’ have a clue. Without quality production no one would buy the PPV. It single handed makes the difference in the sport looking professional or the fighters looking like amateurs.
BS you are absolutely right. The UFC’s rise was due mostly to the excellent gladiator intro video and the “Face the Pain” song, not good fights and good fighters. How could I not realize that.