Ratings for both Bellator 50 and UFC Fight Night 25 were released today, with Bellator Fighting Championships pulling in a measly 114,000 viewers, which ranked at the bottom of all previous events on MTV2. In comparison the UFC pulled in an average audience of 1.8 million viewers for the Shields vs. Ellenberger event.
Don’t get too caught up in comparing the numbers, as the availability of MTV2 in homes pales in comparison to the number of homes that have access to Spike TV.
What it does say though, is that fans are not quite so enthralled by Bellator as they are with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but that’s a no brainer.
Instead of going head-to-head with the UFC, Bellator opted to change their start time by moving the live event broadcast ahead to 7PM vice 9PM, which may have thrown some fans off who expected the normal start time. As well Bellator was also competing with several NCAA football games and the UFC Fight Night 25 Facebook prelim stream, fans had a lot of choices on their plate for free television viewing.
For Bellator the 114,000 viewers ranked last out of sixteen-shows on MTV2 and saw a hefty decline from the previous weekends average of 235,000 who watched Bellator 49.
Saying all of this though, it doesn’t mean the UFC experienced a boon in viewer numbers. The 1.8 million viewers ranked behind the previous free Spike shows from the past year which included UFC Fight Night 24 (which drew 2.2 million) and January’s UFC: Fight for the Troops 2(which averaged 1.85 million).
My interpretation is that fans of the UFC who normally watch events on pay-per-view, will turn up for a free show with a lower talent pool, than watch a regularly scheduled free event that features some of the best fighters outside of the top promotion.
Bellator 50 took place on Sept. 17 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida with the main card airing live on MTV2.
While UFC Fight Night 25 went down at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana which featured a four bout main card on Spike TV.
Props to MMAjunkie.com for the viewer numbers.