It amazes me how stacked the next card is in comparison to all the Fight Nights. Add a random title fight and it would be a legit numbered UFC ppv event.
So how important/big is UFC on Fox for the UFC in comparison to PPV's and Fight Night?
Just for the record, i like it, awesome card imo.
EDIT: i realized i didn't answer your question. Fox shows are 2nd most important to the UFC, after PPV's. the reason is b/c they have a working relationship with Fox, and Fox has some say in what the Fox cards look like. Fox cards tend to be more stacked than FS1 cards, and of course FS1 cards are more stacked than FightPass cards.
the rest of this answer is how important UFC is to Fox.... /edit
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here's the deal. in 2011 when Fox signed with the UFC, they had just started a new channel called "FS1". pure sports, whereas Fox shows some sports but 95% of the programming is non sports (shows, like "The Simpsons")
they had 2 goals:
- get some big fights on Fox 6 or 8 times a year, and
- fill as much air time on FS1 as they could*
*don't forget #2 - most people do, but it was a very, very important part of this deal.
so FS1 shows all the TUF's, tons of replays, tons of old cards, old TUF, etc. and Fox (which also has NFL, NBA, MLB, etc) also carries MMA. just not often. and compared to those sports, MMA is still fringe.
and though it's fringe, it's also cheap. at least compared to American Football.
so they accomplished both goals tremendously well. exceeded expectations, i believe.
but man, the first one ever (JDS v Cain I) bombed so badly, it set their plans back 2 years. which was fine with me, because the next few cards were fucking STACKED, but they weren't confident enough to actually advertise them yet. so we saw great fights on free TV for the first time ever....but most didn't, because they didn't know.
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so the question for today (which you didn't ask) is: how important are these two criteria for a new Fox deal? the answer is....pretty important. UFC is still a cheap way to fill a LOT of air time on FS1. the same people who would never watch a 2 day old basketball game simply don't mind seeing older episodes of TUF. and those 6 or 8 cards on Fox still attract a lot of attention in the key demographics.