Tag: TV deal

UFC Inks Deal with Sony Six, ‘TUF India’ to Premiere in 2013

(Working title for the season: “TUF India — How Can They Slap?”)

At a press conference held yesterday in Mumbai, the UFC announced the signing of a strategic partnership with the sports channel Sony Six, which will bring a wide range of UFC programming to India. Most notably, the channel will host an Indian edition of The Ultimate Fighter, premiering sometime in 2013; casting details will be announced soon. From the press release:

SIX is the destination for all UFC programming in India, from live events featuring the biggest names in the sport to athlete profile shows including the seminal Countdown and Primetime. SIX will also feature the greatest fights in the UFC’s 19-year history with UFC Unleashed.

UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said: “We are very excited to partner with SIX as the UFC expands into India. We look forward to working with them to not only further expand the UFC’s fanbase here, but also to find and develop local talent and, ultimately, bring regular live events to India”…


(Working title for the season: “TUF India — How Can They Slap?”)

At a press conference held yesterday in Mumbai, the UFC announced the signing of a strategic partnership with the sports channel Sony Six, which will bring a wide range of UFC programming to India. Most notably, the channel will host an Indian edition of The Ultimate Fighter, premiering sometime in 2013; casting details will be announced soon. From the press release:

SIX is the destination for all UFC programming in India, from live events featuring the biggest names in the sport to athlete profile shows including the seminal Countdown and Primetime. SIX will also feature the greatest fights in the UFC’s 19-year history with UFC Unleashed.

UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said: “We are very excited to partner with SIX as the UFC expands into India. We look forward to working with them to not only further expand the UFC’s fanbase here, but also to find and develop local talent and, ultimately, bring regular live events to India”…

A cornerstone of the new partnership will be the production of an all-Indian edition of the Ultimate Fighter, the UFC’s long-running reality TV show where 16 of the most talented unsigned martial artists compete for a contract with the UFC. Previous TUF winners have gone on to win UFC world champions and become international superstars.

TUF India will be the third edition of the long-running sports reality show to take place outside the US; with TUF Brazil being a huge success earlier this year and TUF: the Smashes (Australia vs UK) to begin airing in Australia later this month…

[Fertitta] said: “SIX’s willingness to step up and commit to the Ultimate Fighter India was very important to us. TUF India will help to introduce the sport in India, to showcase the hard work, dedication, athleticism and skills needed to compete in the UFC. It will also cast a spotlight throughout the country, searching for the most talented local martial artists.

“The UFC will be successful in India even without local stars, but what we’ve seen around the world is fans really want to see one of their own get a chance to compete at the highest level. Somewhere out there in a country of 1.2 billion there is a Indian champion, someone who will capture the imagination of the fans and help take the sport to a whole new level.”

Indian MMA is still very much in its infancy. The most high-profile native promotion is Super Fight League, which has done more harm than good in terms of showcasing local talent. Mumbai’s Full Contact Championship has been promoting shows since 2009, but even their most talented prospects aren’t quite ready for prime time. Plus, there’s the question of who will coach the TUF India season, considering that the UFC hasn’t had an Indian fighter in its roster since…ever?

Kudos to the UFC for breaking into a gigantic market, but let’s temper our expectations here. Due to a combination of poor resources and a culture that values academics far over athletics, India wins less Olympic medals per capita than any other competing country. So how much success can they really expect to have in a sport that virtually doesn’t exist there yet?

Fight Now! TV Acquires Exclusive Rights to Ring of Fire MMA


Life Lesson: If you’re getting tattoos to look cool, but can only come up with “barbed wire + tribals + first name in graffiti”, you’ll look so much cooler without tattoos. Props: MMAWeekly.com

You know how you felt when your friend found out that he got accepted into Princeton, and then you found out that you got accepted into the local D3 university? How you realized that your announcement was nowhere near as big as his, but hey, you still felt pretty good? Well, this is something like that: MMA Weekly reports that yesterday, Fight Now TV obtained the exclusive rights to Colorado based promotion Ring of Fire MMA.

Don’t sleep on Ring of Fire MMA just because it may be the first time you’ve heard of it. Ring of Fire is the former stomping grounds of current UFC fighters Shane Carwin, Brendan Schaub, Donald Cerrone, Diego Sanchez and Duane Ludwig. The promotion is currently home to UFC/WEC veteran Tyler Toner, Serbian MMA fighter Bojan Velickovic, who won his contract with the promotion on Europe’s answer to The Ultimate Fighter, Put Ka Venronom Ringu (English: The Road to Ring of Fire),as well as Anthony Njokuani’s unfortunately nicknamed younger brother, Chidi “Chidi Bang Bang” Njokuani.


Life Lesson: If you’re getting tattoos to look cool, but can only come up with “barbed wire + tribals + first name in graffiti”, you’ll look so much cooler without tattoos. Props: MMAWeekly.com

You know how you felt when your friend found out that he got accepted into Princeton, and then you found out that you got accepted into the local D3 university? How you realized that your announcement was nowhere near as big as his, but hey, you still felt pretty good? Well, this is something like that: MMA Weekly reports that yesterday, Fight Now TV obtained the exclusive rights to Colorado based promotion Ring of Fire MMA.  

Don’t sleep on Ring of Fire MMA just because it may be the first time you’ve heard of it. Ring of Fire is the former stomping grounds of current UFC fighters Shane Carwin, Brendan Schaub, Donald Cerrone, Diego Sanchez and Duane Ludwig. The promotion is currently home to UFC/WEC veteran Tyler Toner, Serbian MMA fighter Bojan Velickovic, who won his contract with the promotion on Europe’s answer to The Ultimate Fighter, Put Ka Venronom Ringu (English: The Road to Ring of Fire), as well as Anthony Njokuani’s unfortunately nicknamed younger brother, Chidi “Chidi Bang Bang” Njokuani.

The promotion’s next event, tonight’s Ring of Fire 41: Bragging Rights, will be aired on Fight Now TV via tape delay. ROF 41 was set to feature a welterweight title fight between Brandon Thatch and Chidi Njokuani, but has been demoted to a non-title fight due to Njokuani missing weight by two pounds.

Full results of the weigh-ins, courtesy of MMAWeekly:

Brandon Thatch (169.8) vs. Chidi Njokuani (172.8)
Tyler Toner (144.4) vs. J.R. Sims (146.4)
Jason Lee (184.4) vs. Bojan Velickovic (185.4)
Ryan Martinez (259.8) vs. Brandon Endriss (264.8)
Brian Wood (145.8) vs. Jarred Mercado (145.6)
Vinnie Lopez (169.6) vs. Santana Martinez (168.8)
Justin Gaethje (158.2) vs. Kevin Croom (154.4)
Shannon Culpepper (135.4) vs. Lindsay Jones (135.4)
Cody Mumma (184.6) vs. Adam Gonzalez (181.6)
David Treanor (167.8) vs. Tito Solis (171)
Kirk Piatt (168.4) vs. Kris Hocum (170.4)

Analysts Say G4 Purchase Could Cost UFC Between $360-$600 Million


(“…and how much for you to convince Olivia Munn to come back?”)

According to a report by Bloomberg, several analysts are pegging the prospective UFC-G4 deal between $360 and $600 million US, depending on how much of the company Zuffa wants to buy.

Both David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co and David Bank, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets peg the value of the deal as high as $600 million if the UFC purchases the network outright. Insiders say that the promotion is looking to purchase at least a 60% controlling interest in the struggling network, which would cost them an equal percentage of the purchase cost.


(“…and how much for you to convince Olivia Munn to come back?”)

According to a report by Bloomberg, several analysts are pegging the prospective UFC-G4 deal between $360 and $600 million US, depending on how much of the company Zuffa wants to buy.

Both David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co and David Bank, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets peg the value of the deal as high as $600 million if the UFC purchases the network outright. Insiders say that the promotion is looking to purchase at least a 60% controlling interest in the struggling network, which would cost them an equal percentage of the purchase cost.

How the value is determined for a channel is a formula that multiplies the amount of homes the network reaches by a value-per-home figure depending on ratings. Joyce said that figure likely sits between $5 and $10 for the Comcast-owned station that reaches an estimated 60 million homes. More popular channels like Spike TV, whose agreement with the UFC ends late this year, could fetch as much as $20 per household. There are rumors that the UFC are asking Spike for $325 million for them to re-sign with the network they helped put on the map, but it’s unlikely they’ll cough up such a large sum, so they have set the wheels in motion to bring Bellator over from their sister station, MTV2 to fill the void.

NBC Universal spokeswoman Amelia Stewart and UFC PR rep Caren Bell both refused to comment on the prospective deal.