The prelims for UFC 234 on ESPN drew 1.339 million viewers per Nielson via ShowBuzz Daily. The event drew 684,000 viewers in the A18-49 demo.
It was the UFC’s second event aired on ESPN as part of the new deal beginning at the start of the year. The featured bout of the evening saw Devonte Smith stop Dong Hyun Ma.
The event drew an overall share of 0.82.
In comparison, last year’s UFC 221 prelims which featured Dong Hyun Ma (once again) and Damien Brown drew 697,000 viewers with 110,000 in the A18-49 demo.
Payout Perspective:
It’s a small sample size but it’s clear that the ESPN relationship is helping the UFC with viewership. Again, the Duke-Virginia college basketball game served as a lead-in with a slight overrun this time (about 2 mins), but it helped with viewership as the first fight of the prelims saw the peak for the telecast.
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