UFC to Fox Sports 1 in 2013?

[EmpireWF]

Sounds like it plus frontrowbrian says it's happening. Rumor has it coming out next summer.

The network would take the place of Speed Network and directly compete with ESPN. It will have 40 MLB games, a Sportscenter type show and a host of other sports including UFC.

No clue what this means for Fuel or FX.

[s@ppisgod]

While I'm excited at the idea of someone else taking a shot at BSPN aside from NBC Sports and the individual sports networks, it does seem a little conflicting. How do they split up the major sports events to both stay on Fox AND legitimize Fox Sports 1 as a competitor to ESPN? Versus/NBC Sports had a nice, gradual rise from Outdoor Network IIRC to getting some sports to getting a big break and being the only horse in the NHL race post-lockout. And getting a WEC promotion with a wealth of talent. And the Mountain West conference or whatever when they had big games involving BYU, Boise St, Utah, and TCU in football, as well as hitting a mini-jackpot with Jimmer Fredette games in basketball. They also had a Tapout show that seemed to have a decent audience. They really built a nice niche over a period of time. Fox has an uphill battle now that the UFC has taken a hit and people don't seek it out the way they used to (see Fuel ratings).

I'm tempted to think that this is a bad idea.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Sounds like it plus frontrowbrian says it's happening. Rumor has it coming out next summer.

The network would take the place of Speed Network and directly compete with ESPN. It will have 40 MLB games, a Sportscenter type show and a host of other sports including UFC.

No clue what this means for Fuel or FX.

I'll tell you what it means, it means FOX wants UFC off of FX asap.

frontrowbrian was killing UFC on twitter all day, making great points. The FOX move has pretty much been a failure. TUF was already dying and is now pretty much dead. UFC on Fuel, no matter how Dana spins the demos, has to be considered a failure. Yes, those shows do better than what was airing on Fuel previously, but that's not as impressive as it sounds because Fuel was essentially airing stuff that literally nobody was watching, and UFC has not met expectations. The UFC on FX shows have also fallen well below expectations, to the point FOX is shifting the shows to the new sport only network where the ratings expectations will be lower.

And then we have UFC on FOX. Aside from the debut, where 9 million people saw a 90 second fight & one of the weakest looking heavyweight KO's in combat sports history, and no doubt millions of new eyeballs were left with a "this is the big bad UFC?" feeling and have never came back, the rest of the shows have done no better than EliteXC or Strikeforce did on CBS. UFC on FOX has proven that to the big ticket audience of network TV, the UFC name means absolutely nothing. Its all about stars, and the only way to pop ratings on FOX is to give up PPV main events with real stars.

Now they will move to Fox Sports 1. Spike reached 100 million homes. Fuel & Fox Sports 1 reach far less.

So was leaving Spike the right move? On one hand, Zuffa is being paid very high rights fees by FOX, and have the prestige of being able to say they are on prime time network TV. On the other hand, ratings are down from the Spike days, and being on FOX has not helped PPV, which by any measure is either flat or down depending on how you look at it. Has UFC really grown since the FOX deal?

frontrowbrian made a great point when he said UFC went from being the big fish in the small pond to the opposite. Spike let them do whatever they wanted, including look for premium cable deals. They can't do that now. Plus, FOX will treat them like any other entity that doesn't produce, because the are way behind NFL, NASCAR, MLB, etc in the pecking order of properties. Moving UFC to Fox Sports 1 is the first crack in the glass. FOX is paying a lot of money for UFC, they want results.

[Steel Mamba]

They did give us what many expected to be one of the most entertaining heavyweight fights, they've also put multiple top 5 even top 3 PPV draws on the Fox cards. I think the sport is still more niche in the US than the ufc wants to believe and cbs marketing > Fox.

[Steel Mamba]

None of this is official btw.

[Liquidrob]

Bellator taking over spike, that's all that matters

Game, Set, Match, Bjorn

[Warner2BruceTD]

They did give us what many expected to be one of the most entertaining heavyweight fights, they've also put multiple top 5 even top 3 PPV draws on the Fox cards. I think the sport is still more niche in the US than the ufc wants to believe and cbs marketing > Fox.

Agreed.

I still think the biggest mistake (by both Zuffa & FOX, since FOX had say in this) was not airing the Henderson/Guida fight, especially once they knew it was fight of the year caliber. That decision may have set this deal back many years in terms of hooking the new viewers and the casual fans, because the next day buzz would have been completely different and it might have even made a new star or two.

They were extremely unlucky with how the Cain/JDS fight turned out, because it was not only anti climatic and the worst possible outcome with all of those people watching for the first time, but it also failed to create a star.

UFC on FOX basically just draws the MMA audience now.

[Liquidrob]

They wanted to be on FOX to get more ppv buys, that didn't happen plus TUF and fight nights are lower rated then when on spike

Not a success so far

[Warner2BruceTD]

They wanted to be on FOX to get more ppv buys, that didn't happen plus TUF and fight nights are lower rated then when on spike

Not a success so far

This really does sum things up, but to be fair FOX is paying gigantic rights fees that probably make up the difference short term, but I think we all agree long term the growth has been stunted by moving away from Spike and on to Fuel/FX.

The irony here, is the coverage is a thousand times better with FOX. They air all of the prelims now, you get the guys at the desk breaking things down if you are into that, you get the post fight shows, etc. But it's funny, even in 2012 TV viewers are creatures of habit, and there are people who watch MMA who haven't moved to FOX with the UFC, and were still putting on Spike to watch taped fights that were head to head with live Fuel/FX fights.