ESPN reports that Sunday night’s UFC Fight Night on ESPN 1 drew a 1.1 metered market rating while the prelims drew a 0.7 rating. Overall, ESPN indicated that the five-hour window on ESPN drew an average of 0.9.
The partnership between the UFC and ESPN is going well for the promotion as through 3 linear television events, ESPN has aired the three highest-rated UFC telecasts on cable since the beginning of 2017.
Although the ratings will not come out until later this week, ESPN notes that the overnight ratings reflect that it’s the highest-rated UFC Fight Night on cable since UFC Fight Night 81 from January 2016. That event drew a 1.4 rating. The ratings drew an impressive 2.288 million viewers with the prelims posting 1.767 million on FS1.
While Sunday’s night event featuring a heavyweight matchup between Francis Ngannou and Cain Velasquez ended abruptly, it posted an impressive viewership rating. The Prelims which preceded the event also posted strong ratings.
Payout Perspective:
It’s clear that there are more ESPN subscribers than there are FS1 subscribers which helps with viewership. Despite the NBA All-Star game on at the same time, the UFC did well as it was on the main network and other ESPN programming did not really interfere as the UFC was the main sport on Sunday night for the network.
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