2009 has been a breakout year for sports and social media. Athletes, teams, leagues, coaches, media and sponsors have finally started to take note of how social media impacts sports and fans. There have been some really great executions and ideas as well as some missteps.
It is my pleasure to present the ebook, Sports and [...]
UFC Continues Its Rise With New Spike TV Deal
Posted on October 26th, 2007
Since it’s Friday, I’ll keep this short and sweet.
Spike TV and UFC have agreed to a three-year extension of their partnership that includes four additional seasons of “The Ultimate Fighter,” 12 live fight cards, two seasons of a new weekly series featuring live fights and 39 one-hour episodes of “UFC Unleashed,” a retrospective on the UFC greatest fights (Spike TV).
For those of you who still think mixed martial arts is a fringe sport or just a fad, consider this:
In 2007, seven live UFC fights on Spike TV have averaged more men in the coveted 18-34 demographic (869,000) on cable than the more established “major” American sports of basketball, baseball, football, hockey, and NASCAR including:
- 62% more than the NLCS on TBS
- 143% more than the NBA playoffs on ESPN
- 24% more than the NBA playoffs on TNT
- 123%more than MLB Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN
- 48% more than NASCAR on TNT
- 31% more than NASCAR on ESPN
- 81% more than the NFL on NFL Network
- 595% more than the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on Versus (source: PR Newswire)
Those above statistics are shocking, even to me. Here are a few more facts which reaffirm the rise of UFC and MMA:
- UFC earned $223 million in pay-per-view sales in 2006, compared to HBO Boxing ($177 million)
- ESPN has partnered with MMA site, Sherdog.com to promote MMA content on its website
- As in many venues across the country, UFC boasts the highest-grossing gate in Ohio history–higher than Elton John and Billy Joel combined.
I don’t see how people can argue that MMA is just a phase; while you may not like it, it’s here to stay.
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