ESPN: Still 12 PPV's a Year, Only 10 Fights a year on ESPN Cable

So long as most of the feature fights are on PPV, which is a model that has crashed into the rocks and rolled off a cliff, overall interest in the sport will continue to decline.

ESPN ratings and subscribers are in serious trouble. The UFC hasn't figured out how to attract new, young fans, and their core audience is out growing the product.

Long term something substantial has to change.
Keeping 12 ppvs will be a disaster. ESPN are getting 8 more fight nights than FOX, meaning even more watered down cards.(Same size talent pool, more cards to fill out). I was surprised by the response by guys like Luke Thomas, thinking it was a great deal because of the prestige of ESPN. In Canada, the UFC is carried by TSN, sort of the ESPN equivalent. They barely mention the UFC outside of the shows they are required to carry. Previously they were carried by Sportsnet, probably the biggest sportscaster. Sportsnet put a big push on the UFC initially, but when the ratings slumped it moved to the secondary channels and they dropped their shoulder programming. I see the same happening at ESPN.
 
Listen how many cards will there be per year then? Just 30? Or how many IN TOTAL someone help me out please? How many cards will there be in total per year?
 
LOL LOL LOL Ariel is back to being a paid shill.
 
Will there be a total of 42 cards? 30 + 12 a year? Or someone please tell me how many cards there will be in total?
 
So 70 events a year? They doing two a week half the year?
 
Listen how many cards will there be per year then? Just 30? Or how many IN TOTAL someone help me out please? How many cards will there be in total per year?

42

12 PPV's, with prelims on ESPN networks
10 "UFC on ESPN Fight Night" with prelims on ESPN+ and main card on ESPN networks
20 "UFC on ESPN+ Fight Night" with the entire card on ESPN+
 
This is a good deal from all sides for UFC, Espn and fans. Im happy with this

5 bucks for all those ufc events and everyboydy has espn even on the mosr basic cheap cable packages.


This is gonna help UFC expand alot, UFC will be worth 10 billion in a few years...
 
was really hoping they would cut to 6-8 PPV's a year. Make them feel more special, and you would still get more big fights on tv/ESPN+
 
I think 12 PPV's is a massive mistake.

Writing is on the on the wall that fans aren't paying for a PPV just because its UFC anymore. They have been educated and only cherry picking events they want to see. Maybe they are banking on ESPN bringing in a new wave of fans that might support PPV more, but I think you'd have to be living under a rock to not know about the UFC and what it is. UFC has proving in the last year or two they have hard time putting out more than about 6 or 7 quality PPV events a year.

Only in reality, it’s not. With this ESPN money they’re not reliant on big PPV buys anymore. Anything that exceeds expectations or puts up decent to good numbers is just that much extra profit.
 
http://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/23581729/espn-ufc-reach-five-year-television-rights-deal

The deal consists of 30 UFC Fight Night events per year, including 10 main cards on ESPN's television networks. The other 20 will stream on ESPN+, the company's newly launched streaming service.

Additionally, ESPN networks will air preliminary bouts prior to 12 pay-per-view events in 2019.


Initially I thought most of the 30 fight cards were going to be on ESPN channels and PPV would decline and we would get better events on cable. Looks like most UFC events are going behind the ESPN+ curtain. This is probably the end of me being a UFC super fan. I'm going to give PFL a good try though as most of their content won't be behind any paywall.

ESPN+ is $5. FIVE!!! With the fight library included. If you're not in the US, it's $10 USD for FP and ESPN+.

What the fuck is wrong with everyone? Lol
 
This seems way better. It means only 12 $60 PPVs. Most of the events will be on a $5 a month steaming service which is half the cost of fight pass. If you're a fan of other sports it probably includes a lot of other content too.

The upcoming Terrence Crawford-Jeff Horn boxing match will be on ESPN+.
 
Only in reality, it’s not. With this ESPN money they’re not reliant on big PPV buys anymore. Anything that exceeds expectations or puts up decent to good numbers is just that much extra profit.

Yes, I know that.

But they are still moving forward with heavy PPV's. Won't it be smarter and better business shrinking it down to 4 to 6 PPV's that are stacked can't miss PPV's for fans? You'd end up with the same if not better total number in the end of buys for the year.
 
So instead of ufc on fox will we see ufc on abc
 
Anybody know how this will work in the fall? Will espn really broadcast preliminaries rather than college football? Seems dumb.
 
Some years they could have 18 ppvs and others probably 8. It all depends on how many active draws they still fighting. If jones, gsp, silva, conor, and rousey fought 2 times a year that is 10 ppvs with only 5 fighters.

I feel UFC should cut ppv lower numbers when stars aren't fighting as often. Of course that is perfect scenario with no injuries and pullouts. But another wmma ppv without a good fight makes a bad ppv
 
The sport with the largest percentage of millennial fans amongst their fanbase has trouble attracting young fans? If the UFC needs to be worried, then the NFL should be terrified.


PPV ratings are through the floor.

Big Fox ratings are through the floor.

FS1 ratings are through the floor.

It appears the UFC can only have a boon when cult-of-personality figures rise in a burst to the forefront, in the cases of Lesnar, Rousey and Conor. Its been a pretty linear downward slope since the departure of the first two, and the pending return of the third.

The NFL also has a problem, but their overall reach is an order of magnitude more compared to MMA, which is largely ignored by the general public. I could stand on an office desk here in Manhattan and offer $500 cash for the first person to name me three UFC champions.

No one would win.
 
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