Bellator 169 on Spike TV Friday night drew 643,000 viewers per Sports TV Ratings. The event was tape delayed from Dublin, Ireland but still produced the best ratings for a Bellator event since September.
In the main event Muhammed Lawal defeated Satoshi Ishii via unanimous decision. Per Sports TV Ratings, it drew 266,000 viewers in the adult 18-49 demo.
Payout Perspective:
Despite being on tape delay, the event had the highest average viewership since Bellator 161 in September. College Football on ESPN2 and NBA Basketball on NBA were the biggest draws for sports tv on cable during the 9:00pm-11:00pm ET time slot. Through 169, the Bellator TV average on Spike is 677,000 viewers which is still behind the 749,000 of 2015.
So much for Bellator being an alternative. I’ve also heard WSOF is about to fold.
I cant see how WSOF stays in business with less than 200K each and every time…I don’t think the NBC Sports was the best move for them.
Bellator without the tournaments is just another boring run-of-the-mill MMA organization. I used to watch the prelims because they were important (that was the first place I saw MVP – Michael Venom Page fight).
But now since there are no tournaments and Bellator is trying to manufacture stars the same way the UFC tries to, those fights aren’t worth watching because winning doesn’t mean anything anymore. They are just going to keep pushing the same guys no matter if they lose over and over again or have bad fights.
Scott Coker killing another MMA organization. The guys at Spike are idiots.