Last Saturday, 1.5 million viewers saw the main event of Bellator 214 with Ryan Bader taking care of Fedor in the very first round. According to Nielsen via Bellator, the entire telecast drew 784,000 viewers in its 2 hour and 44-minute airing on the Paramount Network including the DVR +3 ratings
Bader won the Heavyweight title becoming a Bellator double champ with the win over Emelianenko.
In addition, the Aaron Pico-Henry Corrales fight drew 1 million viewers and Jake Hager-J.W. Kizer fight drew 1 million viewers. Both of these fights ended in the first round.
In addition, Bellator outlined several other highlights from its broadcast last Saturday.
- The most-watched Bellator event since Bellator 192on January 20, 2018.
- The highest-rated Bellator event with adults 18-49 (.6) since Bellator 175on March 31, 2017.
- The highest-rated Bellator event with men 18-49 (.73) since Bellator 192.
- The second most-streamed Bellator event ever (on various Bellator/Paramount mobile platforms).
- The most-streamed Bellator prelimany card ever.
- The Ryan Bader knockout was among the most engaged posts in Bellator social media history with over 4 millionviews on various social platforms including a record number of video views on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
- The week leading into Bellator 214delivered the second most growth for new followers to Bellator’s social platforms in franchise history.
Payout Perspective:
The numbers should please Bellator execs as the company has seen a decline in their ratings on Paramount in 2018. The ratings, even though they include DVR ratings should show promise. But the strong ratings are based on several minutes of viewership as the three featured fights lasted less than a round. Yet, you could argue that there was strong interest based on the numbers. It also should be noted that the ratings do not include the number of those watching on DAZN.
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