Bellator promised a big announcement on Tuesday and it did not waste any time to share it. Bellator MMA will be on Showtime.
Scott Coker and Stephen Espinoza appeared at the announcement to let all know that it Showtime will be the exclusive home for Bellator and will return to its familiar Friday nights.
The first Bellator event start April 2nd and will be live on both coasts with the 6pm PT/9pm ET start. It was inferred that there would be nights with both boxing and MMA to complement one another.
Coker announced light heavyweight grand prix which will begin in April. Coker will announce the fighters in the 8-man tourney. Coker has touted the 205 division as the best and deepest in all of MMA.
The announcement means an about-face from this past fall when Bellator left Spike TV for CBS Sports Network and held events on Thursday nights. Friday nights were the nights which Bellator held most of its events on Spike TV/Paramount.
Coker noted that after its initial three events in April and beginning of May it would hold two events a month for the rest of 2021.
Payout Perspective:
This is an interesting move, but one we always knew would likely happen. One might infer that the CBS Network experiment was not working. Also, the news that NBC Sports Network would be shutting down at the end of the year may be a sign that Viacom may be consolidating its media properties. With the assistance of Showtime, the production of Bellator will likely go up as it moves to the premium cable tier. The move also means that it is likely through with DAZN as it becomes exclusive to Showtime.
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