Showtime growing and Strikeforce growing

[Liquidrob]

Was reading this article at the shill forum that the LA Times wrote about Showtime, some interesting things in it

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/08/business/fi-ct-showtime-20110108

David Nevins, the network's new entertainment president, said he planned to add more original fare and blend in sports and shows with "cool-guy" testosterone appeal to draw more men and younger viewers to the premium channel.

"The next phase is about being bigger, more expansive, and having more diverse points of view," Nevins said. "We sort of played out a certain kind of character in an extremist, suburban situation. It's time for the next new thing."

The Showtime formula has helped it add viewers while rivals lost them. The network has nearly 19 million subscribers, an increase of 37% over the last five years. That's quite a feat during a recession, when strapped consumers have been cutting back and while its chief competition, HBO and sister channel Cinemax, lost about 1.5 million subscribers last year

Showtime, which at first seemed an odd fit within its corporate parent, is now a major source of profit.

CBS' Showtime Networks, with includes Showtime, TMC and Flix, should generate more than $1.4 billion in revenue in 2011, according to Kagan. The firm estimated that the channels this year would haul in more than $530 million in operating income.

Now look at how Strikeforce started out last year, they ran 4 shows from Jan to April, 2 main shows and 2 challengers cards

Now lets see what is going on to start off this year, they will have at least 6 shows in that same time frame, 4 main cards and 2 challengers shows, thats a huge difference, it could be 7 if they squeeze another challengers show in there which will proabably happen

We all know boxing has an older crowd, one of the oldest for major sports, MMA has the young demo, the showtime budget for boxing is much bigger than what they spend on MMA and it gets them similar ratings, I see Showtime and Strikeforce really going for it this year, the re-signing of Fedor, the HW GP, etc...plus the Super Six has fizzled, I think Showtime see's that MMA is the future, not saying they will drop boxing, but just off of coast and what ratings, viewers and subs they get, MMA should be there main focus down the road

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I prefer the Strikeforce product to the UFC product. I like the smaller stable of fighters, and the Challengers concept. The UFC formula has gotten stale, and they run too many shows which decreases my interest in buying PPV because I like paying for stacked cards, not single fights. I purchsed one UFC PPV in 2010, and watched one other in a movie theatre. I paid to see one Strikeforce event live, and passed on attending several UFC's that were within driving distance. I also passed on two Bellator shows I could have driven to.

The point of this, is Strikeforce earned more of my money last year than any other company. I like their "feel", but I enjoy watching any MMA that I have "free" access to.