"Strikeforce: Houston" ratings peak with nearly a half-million Showtime viewers

[Liquidrob]

http://mmajunkie.com/news/20408/strikeforce-houston-ratings-peak-with-nearly-a-half-million-showtime-viewers.mma

"Strikeforce: Houston" ratings peak with nearly a half-million Showtime viewers
by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Aug 24, 2010 at 12:50 pm ET

Ratings for this past Saturday's "Strikeforce: Houston" event are in, and the Showtime-televised event peaked with an audience of nearly a half-million viewers.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the first-run ratings with an industry source.

Overall, the event, which took place Aug. 21 at the Toyota Center in Houston, averaged 367,000 viewers.

The event, which marked Strikeforce's debut in Texas, featured a pair of title fights; Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante defeated former light-heavyweight champ Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal via TKO, and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza edged Tim Kennedy via unanimous decision for the vacant middleweight bout.

The organization's peak audience – 470,000 viewers – came approximately two hours into the broadcast to coincide with the Lawal vs. Cavalcante main event.

Strikeforce has hosted five "Arena Series" events this year, and Saturday's show ranked third behind January's "Strikeforce: Miami" and June's "Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum" events. (The organization's "Challengers Series," which is primarily prospects0driven, has averaged between 189,000 and 317,000 viewers for its five events in 2010.)

This year's "Arena Series" ratings include:

517,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Miami"
412,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum"
367,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Houston"
308,000 viewers, "Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery"
164,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Los Angeles"

The ratings, of course, do not include replays, DVR viewing or Showtime On Demand. In the case of the "Fedor vs. Werdum" event, for example, the total viewership increased from 412,000 viewers to more than 700,000 with the secondary-viewing options.

Still, as executives previously told MMAjunkie.com, Showtime, which boasts approximately 12 million viewers, is a premium-cable station and doesn't "live and die" with the ratings as advertising-based networks do.

For more on "Strikeforce: Houston," check out the MMA Events section of MMAjunkie.com.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Cantg really spin it either way, its a average number, good peak, but id like to correct something from the article.

DVR viewings within 24 hours count towards the rating, at least when it comes to networks.

[Liquidrob]

I would like to see some of the numbers for Showtimes boxing cards, the only one I can remember was the Super Six fight on the Showtime free preview weekend, I think it was an Abraham fight, did about a million viewers, but it was a free preview weekend

I think thats what it comes down to, I read that Showtime's pays much much more for there boxing contract than what they give Strikeforce which is understandable, but now I think Showtime see's they get very similar ratings for less money, plus the production costs seem lower for a Strikeforce show than there higher profile boxing cards

Comparing them to UFC numbers for PPV's, Spike cards, Versus and even WEC cards on Versus doesnt matter much, it has to do with what the network looks for, I think Showtime is happy and when the 3 year deal is done Strikeforce will be in good shape to renegotiate with Showtime for more money or just go with a better TV deal some where else, they just have to be able to survive and make money the next year and a half which I think they are, its not a lot, but enough to keep running and signing fighters

[SHOGUN]

Could you imagine the numbers if they actually promoted?

[Warner2BruceTD]

Could you imagine the numbers if they actually promoted?

Costs money.

They should be doing countdown style shows. It works, cheap to produce. But like rob said, why spend money doing thatto drive up a Showtime rating that won't equal mor ad revenue anyway? But for the CBS shows, it should be a must.

[Liquidrob]

I wonder how much on an impact the UFC not counter programming had? I have stayed before that when the UFC runs repeats against Showtime shows that it doesnt hurt that much, the people that were going to watch will, the viewers the UFC gets for these replays wouldnt be watching anyway

These numbers seem on par with what they have done in the past