Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports provided his own thoughts on the UFC Fight Pass in a review that provided pros and cons on the new digital service.
Iole concluded that the service is geared to the hardcore UFC fan and not a marketing tool to promote the casual or new-to-MMA fan. He sees the network as a way to build stars and promote its product internationally.
Notably, Iole paid for the Fight Pass as he turned down the UFC’s offer to provide it free to certain MMA Media. This likely gave Iole the freedom to critique without the feeling he was compelled to find positive things to say.
Iole provides a detailed review of the platform which you can read here.
Of note, he indicated the following about the UFC’s revenue from its new endeavor:
For UFC, it generates $1 million in gross revenue per month for every 100,000 subscribers, though officials refuse to say how many subscribers there are. It is now available in 178 countries, so it would almost have to be a complete bomb to not be in 100,000 homes already.
Payout Perspective:
Fight Pass has suffered a lot of criticism during its 60 day trial period. Some of it has been constructive while others have not.
Although no numbers have come out, from all indications, Fight Pass has done well in the United States and with it going global prior to Saturday’s fight you can expect that it had exceeded much more than 100,000 homes prior to even being available abroad. Obviously, there are costs for Fight Pass so a chunk of the gross revenue would go back into making sure that the network avoids any tech glitches. It also would likely go back to the costs of producing events in all of the locations outside of North America. Still, the UFC is likely happy with the anticipated profits it should see from this investment.
Report!: 5 + 5 = 10
My only complaint. I signed up when it first went online while at work. Worked fine watch the first live event and some old UFC events. Didn’t go back for a few weeks until this live event was about to start. We’ll I could not find any way to access the event or anything fight pass related. All I got was links to sign up for a 7 day trail. I tried to resign up and it told me I already was subscribed. So I missed the entire event. I did notice on some pages it said residential use only. Not sure if that is why I couldn’t see the event or why I could t find any fight pass related videos. Not sure why they would allow non residential internet accounts to sign up but not watch the service. Couldn’t reach anyone in live chat help on the site. If I can’t get this fixed or they don’t allow not residential then I will have to cancel. I have no other internet option.
It doesn’t make sense that they would limit the service to residential IP addresses. I frequently watch ESPN3 and NBC Sports at work. I can’t imagine Fight Pass would be any different. It sounds like there are some glitches with the roll out, which is to be expected.
I think this is a clever way to monetize some shows that otherwise wouldn’t bring in much revenue. It will be interesting to see how big the UFC can grow this. I’m happy that they’re trying something new. Now we just have to see how it works.
@Diego – I think the big thing for both UFC and WWE is how it will sustain subscribers. There will be the initial interest but how do they retain subscribers will be the key.
Seriously Jason – this is the epitome of a pointless article – we all can multiply 100k by ten. not trying to be a hater but this is just posting non-news for the sake of posting
Agree Diego. I liked it when I had access to it. It also makes perfect sense for the future. Dana has always said they do not intent people to see every event. This becomes clear when they expand globally. It is already to the point it is extremely hard to follow everything and we are really only half way there. Fight Pass makes it more likely people can follow everything or close to everything or more than before. Because you are not at the whim of tv schedules. You can do to that event when ever. You can also cherry pick fights from events you normally wouldn’t watch to check out the prospect that has so much talk. It gives up much more fights, much more control, and more options. They are also doing thinks with fighters behind the scenes that would never get on TV. Fight pass gives them a place to put fighter all access that you just cant put on TV unless that are huge stars. people can follow their favorite fighters and learn more about them. I cant say to many bad things about it. except they wont let me access it lol.
I read Kevin’s article. Interesting that PPVs will e available between 30-90 days after initial airing. I had not heard that mentioned before.
Jason, can you confirm this?
Please let UFC FIGHT Pass be available in China soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!