Glory announced it has forged a new deal with ESPN. The deal is effective immediately as this Friday’s event will air on the network
Glory 25 Milan, which originally was going to be shown on its web site. It will now be shown live this Friday, November 6th on ESPN3 at 4pm EST/1pm PST and will replay on ESPN2 at 1:30am EST/10:30pm PST.
ESPN3 is available online at WatchESPN.com. According to the press release, ESPN3 is available in more than 99 million homes. ESPN2 is available to approximately over 94 million households in the United States via TV By Numbers.
The news comes just a week after it was announced that the premier kickboxing organization would no longer be shown on Spike TV. The two sides decided not to continue with its business relationship. Glory issued a statement related to this.
Via press release:
“We couldn’t be happier to be on multiple platforms of the most watched, most talked about sports network in the world,” said GLORY CEO Jon Franklin. “This Friday will be the first time our stacked card will be available live on both coasts – joining live international broadcasts already scheduled in more than 100 countries, with almost 80 more on delay – and we’re excited to be working with ESPN.
Payout Perspective:
Good news for kickboxing fans. The question is whether it will be buried at times where people will need to DVR the programming. Certainly, ESPN3 will help with people finding the live programming but having it on cable TV will help grow the sport in the United States. Spike TV is in roughly 94 million households. Thus, Glory does not pick up a lot of households for visibility. We will see how ESPN promotes the promotion.
Glory 25 superfight series will air on cbs sports network on saturday.
Good night of fights. The scoring in the main event was pathetic.