On March 13th Spike TV re-branded its Friday night with a mix of Bellator MMA, Glory Kickboxing and Premier Boxing Champions on its network. MMA Payout takes a look at how it’s done in ratings 6 months in.
“Friday Night Lights Out” began mid-March with PBC on Spike to promising ratings. The inaugural event drew 869,000 viewers on March 13th. Since its debut, PBC has aired on Spike TV 4 more times and has not drawn as many viewers. Excluding this past Friday’s event, it has drawn an average of 664,000 viewers.
| PBC on Spike | |
| 869,000 | 3/13/2015 |
| 569,000 | 4/24/2015 |
| 772,000 | 5/22/2015 |
| 446,000 | 6/12/2015 |
Glory Kickboxing has aired 4 times since March. It has not done as well as you’d expect with just one show eclipsing 400K viewers. In its 4 shows it has drawn an average of 320,000 viewers.
| Glory | Ratings | Date |
| 20 | 359,000 | 4/3/2015 |
| 21 | 488,000 | 5/8/2015 |
| 22 | 152,000 | 6/5/2015 |
| 23 | 284,000 | 8/7/2015 |
In comparison to Glory’s events on Spike during the same time period in 2014, you can see that Glory did better last year than this year. In 3 shows from April 2014 to August 2014, it drew an average of 450,000 viewers. We note that the last show in this time period was in June and Glory did not air another event until November 2014. You might recall Glory was on PPV last June.
| Glory (2014) | ||
| 15 | 354,000 | Apr-14 |
| 16 | 498,000 | May-14 |
| 17 | 487,000 | Jun-14 |
Bellator MMA has aired 6 times since March 13th and on the heels of its June tentpole event which featured Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock, it has averaged 820,000 viewers.
| Bellator | Ratings | Date |
| 135 | 607,000 | 3/27/2015 |
| 136 | 655,000 | 4/10/2015 |
| 137 | 594,000 | 5/15/2015 |
| 138 | 1,580,000 | 6/19/2015 |
| 139 | 764,000 | 6/26/2015 |
| 140 | 722,000 | 7/17/2015 |
This time period last year, Bellator MMA aired seasons with 10 shows from March 2014 to August 2014 with the last one in July 2014. It drew an average of 642,000 viewers. Bellator aired its first PPV during this time period.
| Bellator (2014) | ||
| 113 | 507,000 | 3/24/2014 |
| 114 | 711,000 | 4/1/2014 |
| 115 | 830,000 | 4/7/2014 |
| 116 | 572,000 | 4/11/2014 |
| 117 | 617,000 | 4/18/2014 |
| 118 | 701,000 | 5/5/2014 |
| 119 | 511,000 | 5/1/2014 |
| 120 | PPV | 5/1/2014 |
| 121 | 668,000 | 7/1/2014 |
We note that not every Friday has aired one of the three combat sports. Below is a list of dates without a combat sports event on Spike TV.
March 20th
April 17th
May 1st
May 29th
July 3rd
July 10th
July 24th
July 31st
Payout Perspective:
So far through 6 months of its new revamped lineup there are a couple things to draw from the ratings. First, Glory Kickboxing needs help. One might suggest that the co-promoted Bellator/Glory event in September should help Glory. Yet, for one reason or another, the sport is not gaining traction with viewers. Secondly, Bellator MMA seems to be on the rise. While we cannot conclude that Bellator MMA is substantially better under Scott Coker, the ratings suggest that it is drawing more viewers. The last “season” of Bellator drew respectable ratings and this year it remains consistent. Add the stable ratings to the quarterly tentpole event and you can see the room to grow for the brand.
As for PBC on Spike TV, the ratings are on par with Bellator events. One might think that PBC is not as concerned with Spike ratings as it is on so many networks at this point. The bigger fights are likely going to be on NBC or ESPN. With the fights it is putting on Spike TV at this point, it is likely happy with the ratings. We shall keep watch on how ratings continue on Spike TV Friday nights.
This is why Bellator does one big show a quarter with Tito and Kimbo.
Without that show they average 668k which is basically the same as they were doing before Coker with the tournament only they were weekly. Bellator has weeks to promote these monthly shows and they do the same numbers.
Thats why when fans complain about Coker signing UFC wash ups from the past they dont get it, Kos, Daley, Kimbo, Tito, these are names Spike fans know and will tune in to watch and gives them ratings.
A UFC name from 10 years ago will do better ratings than most Bellator champs.
Glory really needs help which is why they are doing joint Bellator show to try and get mma fans to care.
PBC needs some bigger fights to get bigger ratings but with all the deals they have they arent like Glory/Bellator relying on just this one network.
Spike could show Cop’s re-runs and do better ratings, they could probably do the same if they brought bsck TNA, but I’m guessing they get higher advertising rates from Bellator & PBC, probably not Glory though.
Chris and Duck make total sense.