Tag: MMA Media Watch

Spike TV Will Counter-Program Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis on FOX

Filed under: MMA Media Watch, UFC, UFC on FOXThe UFC’s TV contract with Spike runs out at the end of the year, and Spike has already announced that it plans to aggressively counter-program the UFC’s programming with its new TV partner, FOX.

Spike sent…

Filed under: , ,

The UFC‘s TV contract with Spike runs out at the end of the year, and Spike has already announced that it plans to aggressively counter-program the UFC’s programming with its new TV partner, FOX.

Spike sent out a press release on Wednesday announcing that it will air a Saturday night programming lineup on January 28 entitled UFC Unleashed: Evans vs. Davis, which will run simultaneously with the UFC on Fox card headlined by Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis.

Spike’s lineup will run from 4 PM to midnight and feature fights involving Evans and Davis, as well as Chael Sonnen, Mark Munoz and Michael Bisping, all of whom are also fighting on the Fox card on Jan. 28.

For Spike, this is basically an attempt to use the powerful marketing of the UFC and Fox against them: Fox will market Evans and Davis during NFL games, and the UFC will put Evans and Davis on billboards, and when fight night rolls around, some viewers flipping through the channels will end up watching their old fights on Spike.

Labeling the event “Evans vs. Davis” may do a disservice to some viewers who will set their DVRs for “Evans vs. Davis” only to realize after the fact that they recorded the wrong program, although it’s hard to imagine many viewers will be fooled into watching the wrong fight. But this is the way Spike programming is likely to look for the remainder of 2012: When UFC fighters are live in the Octagon, Spike will treat its viewers to a heavy dose of reruns from the same fighters.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

UFC on FOX Ratings: 4.6 Million Viewers for Velasquez vs. Dos Santos

Filed under: , ,

UFC on FOX ratings were 4.6 million viewers.The first UFC fight on network television drew approximately 4.6 million viewers, according to early estimates.

Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez, the heavyweight title fight that the UFC was banking on to bring in a whole new audience on Fox, turned into something of a ratings disappointment, perhaps because the fight lasted only a minute: A longer fight would have drawn in more people who are flipping through the channels and happen to catch the fight and decide to stick with it. Dos Santos knocked Velasquez out so quickly that there was no time for that kind of audience to find the fight.


According to TV By the Numbers, there’s better news inside the coveted 18-49-year-old demographic: Within that group the UFC got a 2.4 rating and a 7 share. That’s about the same as the Stanford-Oregon game that was on at ABC at the same time; that matchup of Top 10 college football teams did a 2.5 rating and 7 share in the 18-49 demographic. The college football game did much better among older viewers and had an audience of 7.1 million.

The most frustrating part of this news from the perspective of the UFC and Fox will be that the broadcast fell short of the 2008 Kimbo Slice EliteXC broadcast on CBS. Hard-core MMA fans know that Velasquez vs. Dos Santos was a much better matchup, but Kimbo had attracted national attention leading up to his fight in a way that Velasquez and Dos Santos hadn’t. Kimbo also didn’t have the kind of tough competition among sports fans that the UFC had with the Stanford-Oregon game.

The good news for the UFC is that these ratings may end up being adjusted when more data is made available, and the number of people watching during the one minute of fighting — as opposed to the 59 minutes of pre- and post-fight interviews — may turn out to have been significantly higher than the 4.6 million for the full hour-long broadcast. More detailed numbers should be available later Sunday.

%VIRTUAL-Gallery-139230%

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: , ,

UFC on FOX ratings were 4.6 million viewers.The first UFC fight on network television drew approximately 4.6 million viewers, according to early estimates.

Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez, the heavyweight title fight that the UFC was banking on to bring in a whole new audience on Fox, turned into something of a ratings disappointment, perhaps because the fight lasted only a minute: A longer fight would have drawn in more people who are flipping through the channels and happen to catch the fight and decide to stick with it. Dos Santos knocked Velasquez out so quickly that there was no time for that kind of audience to find the fight.


According to TV By the Numbers, there’s better news inside the coveted 18-49-year-old demographic: Within that group the UFC got a 2.4 rating and a 7 share. That’s about the same as the Stanford-Oregon game that was on at ABC at the same time; that matchup of Top 10 college football teams did a 2.5 rating and 7 share in the 18-49 demographic. The college football game did much better among older viewers and had an audience of 7.1 million.

The most frustrating part of this news from the perspective of the UFC and Fox will be that the broadcast fell short of the 2008 Kimbo Slice EliteXC broadcast on CBS. Hard-core MMA fans know that Velasquez vs. Dos Santos was a much better matchup, but Kimbo had attracted national attention leading up to his fight in a way that Velasquez and Dos Santos hadn’t. Kimbo also didn’t have the kind of tough competition among sports fans that the UFC had with the Stanford-Oregon game.

The good news for the UFC is that these ratings may end up being adjusted when more data is made available, and the number of people watching during the one minute of fighting — as opposed to the 59 minutes of pre- and post-fight interviews — may turn out to have been significantly higher than the 4.6 million for the full hour-long broadcast. More detailed numbers should be available later Sunday.

%VIRTUAL-Gallery-139230%

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

MMA Fighting Sold to Vox Media

Filed under: MMA Media Watch, NewsVox Media, the parent company of SB Nation, announced on Monday that it has acquired MMAFighting.com from AOL.

“I’m really excited to announce here that MMAFighting and SB Nation are going to team up together,” Vox Ch…

Filed under: ,

VOX MediaVox Media, the parent company of SB Nation, announced on Monday that it has acquired MMAFighting.com from AOL.

“I’m really excited to announce here that MMAFighting and SB Nation are going to team up together,” Vox Chairman and CEO Jim Bankoff said in an appearance on The MMA Hour.

Bankoff said the MMAFighting.com audience shouldn’t expect to see many changes in the site.

“When you talk about MMAFighting, it’s the team of people behind it and the audience and community that the team has built up, and the audience it engages in,” Bankoff said. “We’re going to do everything we can to support the people who make it all possible and support the audience that makes it all possible.”

MMAFighting.com will join MMANation, MMAMania and Bloody Elbow as part of SB Nation’s portfolio of combat sports sites. Bankoff said MMAMania and Bloody Elbow would remain separate sites, while over time MMAFighting will become the MMA hub of SB Nation.

“SB Nation, unlike a lot of other sports sites, has from the beginning put an emphasis on the coverage of MMA,” Bankoff said. “We’re proud of the people behind those sites.”

Bankoff said MMAFighting.com will remain largely the same site going forward that it is now.

“All the great work that is done, whether it’s the interviews, the video, the community interaction, all of that is going to stay at the level if not be bigger and better than where it is today,” Bankoff said.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Boxing vs. MMA Debate Hits England for UFC 138

Filed under: MMA Media Watch, UFC

American mixed martial arts fans have heard so many “boxing vs. MMA” arguments through the years that at this point, those arguments usually make people’s eyes glaze over. But with the Octagon in England this week for…

Filed under: ,

American mixed martial arts fans have heard so many “boxing vs. MMA” arguments through the years that at this point, those arguments usually make people’s eyes glaze over. But with the Octagon in England this week for UFC 138, it was interesting to see a British perspective on the same topic.

That’s what we got from PTI UK this week (yes, there’s a British version of Pardon the Interruption), when they offered the following toss-up topic: “Is the UFC bigger than boxing?”

It’s a sign of the enormous growth of the UFC in the UK that anyone would even ask that question. Prizefighting has been popular in Great Britain for centuries, England was the birthplace of the Marquess of Queensberry Rules, and boxing is still quite popular in the UK — much more popular than it is in the United States. No matter how you answer the question, even asking it is an enormous compliment to the UFC’s efforts across the pond.

“The UFC is brilliant. The product is sensational, the packaging, there’s no other sport doing it as well,” one PTI UK co-host said.

However, the co-host was quite a bit less impressed with MMA as a whole, noting that the UFC only comes to the UK a couple times a year, and that non-UFC MMA shows leave a lot to be desired.

“Most mixed martial arts events take place and they’re rubbish. They’re garbage,” he said.

At the moment, boxing is far bigger than MMA around the world. There’s no denying that. But it’s rather astounding that MMA is closing in on boxing, given how entrenched boxing is around the globe, and how new MMA is. American sports fans might be tired of “MMA vs. boxing” questions, but hearing those questions asked in traditional boxing hot spots has to be music to the ears of anyone who’s thrilled by the worldwide growth of MMA.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FOX Announces Loaded TV Lineup for UFC Debut

Filed under: MMA Media Watch, UFC, News, UFC on FOXFOX has announced its full lineup of programming that will air before and after next Saturday’s historic UFC telecast, and it’s without a doubt the most impressive TV lineup served up to fans surroundi…

Filed under: , , ,

FOX has announced its full lineup of programming that will air before and after next Saturday’s historic UFC telecast, and it’s without a doubt the most impressive TV lineup served up to fans surrounding any UFC event.

In addition to the one-hour telecast on FOX, which will feature Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight title, UFC programming will air on FUEL TV and FOX Deportes.

Below is an easy to read schedule of everything you can expect to see:

Friday, Nov. 11:
7:00 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT — Weigh-ins live on FUEL TV
7:00 P.M. ET — Cain Velasquez: Brown Pride, episode 3 on FOX Deportes

Saturday, Nov. 12:
3:00 p.m. ET — Cain Velasquez: Brown Pride, episodes 1-3 on FOX Deportes
4:45 p.m. ET — UFC on FOX prelims live on Facebook and FOXSports.com
5:30 p.m. ET — Weigh-ins re-air on FUEL TV
6:00 p.m. ET — UFC Primetime re-air on FUEL TV
6:00 p.m. ET — Re-air of Cain Velasquez vs. Brock Lesnar on FOX Deportes
7:00 p.m. ET — UFC prelims live on FOX Deportes
7:00 p.m. ET — Pre-fight show on FUEL TV, hosted by Glazer, along with Kenny Florian and Stephan Bonnar
9:00 p.m. ET — UFC on FOX broadcast, hosted by Curt Menefee, along with Dana White, Brock Lesnar and Joe Rogan. Mike Goldberg and Rogan will call the heavyweight title fight.
10 p.m. ET — UFC on FOX post-fight show on FUEL TV, hosted by Glazer, along with Florian and Bonnar

In addition, FOX Sports Radio will air five hours live coverage on Nov. 12, which will include pre-fight analysis, the call of the heavyweight title fight and a post-fight show hosted by MMA journalist Larry Pepe.

UFC on FOX 1 takes place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Chael Sonnen to Co-Host 2011 World MMA Awards; Show to Air on Fox Sports

Filed under: MMA Media Watch, NewsChael Sonnen is taking his act to the 2011 World MMA Awards.

The loquacious middleweight fighter has been named co-host for the 2011 World MMA Awards by Fighters Only Magazine, the publication announced Friday afterno…

Filed under: ,

Chael Sonnen is taking his act to the 2011 World MMA Awards.

The loquacious middleweight fighter has been named co-host for the 2011 World MMA Awards by Fighters Only Magazine, the publication announced Friday afternoon. Sonnen will share the stage with TV personality Molly Qerim, who co-hosted the event last year with Randy Couture.

News of Sonnen hosting the show was first reported by MMAWeekly.com Friday morning.

In addition, it was also announced that the awards show will air via tape delay across the Fox Sports regional networks and on Fuel TV. Air dates and times will be announced in the coming weeks.

“I say it every year that we want to make the awards show bigger and better and every year we have done just that,” Rob Hewitt, CEO of Fighters Only, stated in a release. “However, none of it would be possible with out the support of the MMA industry, the fans, our sponsors and TV and venue partners who all believe as much as we do in this project. To celebrate the sport we love and the people within it in the way that we do is a crowning moment of the year for Fighters Only and we can’t wait to reveal this year’s winners.”

World MMA Awards winners are selected by the fans. You can cast your vote by clicking here.

The fourth annual World MMA Awards takes place Wednesday, Nov. 30, at the Pearl Theatre inside the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The event is open to the public, and tickets go on sale Friday afternoon at the Pearl box office or any Ticketmaster location.

Editor’s note: MMAFighting.com is nominated for Media Source of the Year, while our own Ben Fowlkes and Ariel Helwani are nominated for Journalist of the Year.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments