News Bellator sale talks heating up

[TorontoTO]

Paramount is not doing great financially

 

[Terry_Dak_Tull]

Paramount is not doing great financially

I just want all this to be over soon. I'm just tired of it all. It's similar to a sports team relocating. Just get it over with.

 

[Bubba32]

Paramount is not doing great financially

Even ESPN is up for sale now.

 

[TorontoTO]

Even ESPN is up for sale now.

I wonder how that will affect the UFC renegotiations, not a great time for those rights to be up

 

[David Street]

Good news ESPN+ has been losing money and Bob Iger is determined to change that. UFC is safe heard they already have a new deal signed. ESPN teamed up with Penn Entertainment to get gambling in and Amazon will help them move from the trap of the no gambling idealogy of family friendly Disney brand. They are also still in talks with Verizon looks like they will try to do both.


https://www.theinformation.com/articles/verizon-has-talked-with-disney-about-espn-partnership

 

[TorontoTO]

Good news ESPN+ has been losing money and Bob Iger is determined to change that. UFC is safe heard they already have a new deal signed. ESPN teamed up with Penn Entertainment to get gambling in and Amazon will help them move from the trap of the no gambling idealogy of family friendly Disney brand. They are also still in talks with Verizon looks like they will try to do both.


https://www.theinformation.com/articles/verizon-has-talked-with-disney-about-espn-partnership

Charging 35 dollars a month tho…. That’s gonna be a tough sell for the average consumer

 

[David Street]

Charging 35 dollars a month tho…. That’s gonna be a tough sell for the average consumer

ESPN+ now $9.99, to get and keep top promotions they will need partners and more content, they say the Verizon deal and Amazon are for them to go global.

The new deal with UFC has been mentioned by many. But not officially annouced thought ESPN was holding off with the annoucement, but now thinking it is Vince McMahon as Vince always regretted not getting his XFL American football to work, he called it his biggest business failure, it Was Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson's idea but Vince did it and it failed. The Rock teamed up with RedBird Capital and Dany Garcia to buy it from Vince. They used Dwayne Johnson Disney connection to get it on ESPN but still lost a lot of money, as Disney did not want to lose American football they bought I heard 20% of XFL, my guess is they will wait for after TKO Holdings is formed next month and it will be announced XFL sold to TKO holdings. One thing that makes me think this way is Vince and TKO Holding is to be the home of "Combat Sports" and Dana has been openly saying lately he considers American Football a "combat sport". (PBR the bull riding org many in that orgization are also using those words say Bull Riding is a "Combat Sport" a move to get them in also... as are owned by Endeavor. So just guessing but think, part of UFC's new ESPN deal is their 20% of XFL, get the rest from Red Bird (Where they bought the Hospitality Firm, On Location).

ESPN+ move to be global means they will need more sports and Endeavor's IMG UK has relationships with the likes of EuroLeague, Super League Rugby, World’s Strongest Man, World Championship Snooker and Grand Slam Tennis...

 

[Bubba32]

I wonder how that will affect the UFC renegotiations, not a great time for those rights to be up

It might help because what is espn plus worth without the UFC?

 

[Cartiac]

This article sucks ass big time… everything is speculative and buying Bellator does not make PFL 1B at all …. Closing the gap with the ufc, lol!!! What a joke … PFL is horrible … they have a ton of money from investors and have not been able to do shit with the company but to burn money … they’re product is an all time worse at this moment

I just qualified for mental disability for reading that massively retarded article. The stupidity level expressed in this article and elsewhere makes it pretty hard to believe there is even any intention of these companies being legit business and much more like the latest iteration of the PRIDE FC organized crime racket.

PFL is the rebranding of WSOF so this company has continued to "fail" for over a decade now with an investor list that includes very major sports team owner groups and now they are going to buy another failed organization with more investor money? These investors are not stupid so you have to question why they would put money into a long term failed company claiming to be trying to directly compete with the UFC in a market they created and own.

 

[Stan]

It might help because what is espn plus worth without the UFC?

ESPN + wants to expand outside of the American market and become worldwide. In order to do that they'll have to drastically change to sports that are popular worldwide. UFC is not even that big in America when compared to MLB, NBA and the NFL. It gets even worse when you compare the UFC to other worldwide sports. ESPN + won't need the UFC niche market to become successful worldwide.

Just look at these 3 worldwide sports Rugby, F1 and Football (not the American brand) are massive worldwide. Today the Netherlands F1 Grand Prix had 100,000 people in attendance thats massive. They attracted over 400,000 people over the weekend. During the American F1 races this year they attracted up to 300,000 + people during the week for each event. Miami F1 announced they will be increasing seating capacity to 100,000 for the 2024 F1 race. The UFC can't even attract those type numbers during fight week.

Rugby another worldwide sport attracts massive crowds in attendance yet its not even shown in America. Wait to see how popular Rugby becomes in America once people understand how its played. Rugby makes American Football look BORING.

Football the worldwide sport (not the boring American sport) attracts massive crowds of 70,000 - 100,000 + in attendance. This sport has been a sleeping giant for decades within the American market thats finally starting to erupt. The signing of Football greatest Lionel Messi with Miami has shown how popular this sport can become in America. Everywhere Miami plays they've sold out every seat in every stadium they play within the first hour when tickets are put up for sale. Look at the UFC they can't even sell out PPV's with capacity 35,000 seats in American even though they will falsely claim during the event.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

ESPN + wants to expand outside of the American market and become worldwide. In order to do that they'll have to drastically change to sports that are popular worldwide. UFC is not even that big in America when compared to MLB, NBA and the NFL. It gets even worse when you compare the UFC to other worldwide sports. ESPN + won't need the UFC niche market to become successful worldwide.

Just look at these 3 worldwide sports Rugby, F1 and Football (not the American brand) are massive worldwide. Today the Netherlands F1 Grand Prix had 100,000 people in attendance thats massive. They attracted over 400,000 people over the weekend. During the American F1 races this year they attracted up to 300,000 + people during the week for each event. Miami F1 announced they will be increasing seating capacity to 100,000 for the 2024 F1 race. The UFC can't even attract those type numbers during fight week.

Rugby another worldwide sport attracts massive crowds in attendance yet its not even shown in America. Wait to see how popular Rugby becomes in America once people understand how its played. Rugby makes American Football look BORING.

Football the worldwide sport (not the boring American sport) attracts massive crowds of 70,000 - 100,000 + in attendance. This sport has been a sleeping giant for decades within the American market thats finally starting to erupt. The signing of Football greatest Lionel Messi with Miami has shown how popular this sport can become in America. Everywhere Miami plays they've sold out every seat in every stadium they play within the first hour when tickets are put up for sale. Look at the UFC they can't even sell out PPV's with capacity 35,000 seats in American even though they will falsely claim during the event.

UFC is pretty popular worldwide to be fair. You can't really compare it to soccer, if they wanted to obtain the worldwide rights to the premier League it'd cost them billions per year.

 

[careto]

UFC is pretty popular worldwide to be fair. You can't really compare it to soccer, if they wanted to obtain the worldwide rights to the premier League it'd cost them billions per year.

More people watch ONE than the Premier League, though. So, ONE's rights must be worth a billion gazillion...baht.

 

[David Street]

More people watch ONE than the Premier League, though. So, ONE's rights must be worth a billion gazillion...baht.

Charti brain washing is working.


Note: ESPN+ new market stragery is to trade stock in ESPN+ for rights, Making them owners. Sounds like reaching but some will bite, not sure if UFC did. ESPN has F1 also signed at least in the USA.

Post post note: Disney says they will leave all cable by 2025 (including ABC). Selling all cable rights and properties the goal is to buy Hulu and merge it with Disney plus.

 

[Stan]

UFC is pretty popular worldwide to be fair. You can't really compare it to soccer, if they wanted to obtain the worldwide rights to the premier League it'd cost them billions per year.

The UFC doesn't even have 1/4th the fanbase of F1, Rugby or Football worldwide. If ESPN goes global they will have to pay much more than the 1.5 billion they paid for UFC rights that fell far short of the numbers they estimated.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

The UFC doesn't even have 1/4th the fanbase of F1, Rugby or Football worldwide. If ESPN goes global they will have to pay much more than the 1.5 billion they paid for UFC rights that fell far short of the numbers they estimated.

If you mean NFL then it might do I'm not sure. People don't really care about the NFL outside the US aside for a few weirdos.

 

[David Street]

If you mean NFL then it might do I'm not sure. People don't really care about the NFL outside the US aside for a few weirdos.

Lots of weirdos out there from the Samoa to Canada and South America. Grew up with NFL Dwayne the Rock played for a Candian football team.

Have not seen any signs of ESPN re-signing PFL but bet if they settled for stock for their rights they would get resigned and as I have said they have the F1 rights for the States. Endeavor's IMG UK have the rights to many European sports including Rugby. Though I cannot see them competing with DAZN yet I do see a great Europe start.

 

[Stan]

The UFC doesn't even have 1/4th the fanbase of F1, Rugby or Football worldwide. If ESPN goes global they will have to pay much more than the 1.5 billion they paid for UFC rights that fell far short of the numbers they estimated.

NFL is just another sport Americans love but its as boring a sport as golf.

 

[David Street]

NFL is just another sport Americans love but its as boring a sport as golf.

Actually, I agree it was better when I was young and moves like lateral passes the running backs did was alllowed.

 

[Arty]

will bellator go down next year?

 

[Bubba32]

ESPN + wants to expand outside of the American market and become worldwide. In order to do that they'll have to drastically change to sports that are popular worldwide. UFC is not even that big in America when compared to MLB, NBA and the NFL. It gets even worse when you compare the UFC to other worldwide sports. ESPN + won't need the UFC niche market to become successful worldwide.

Just look at these 3 worldwide sports Rugby, F1 and Football (not the American brand) are massive worldwide. Today the Netherlands F1 Grand Prix had 100,000 people in attendance thats massive. They attracted over 400,000 people over the weekend. During the American F1 races this year they attracted up to 300,000 + people during the week for each event. Miami F1 announced they will be increasing seating capacity to 100,000 for the 2024 F1 race. The UFC can't even attract those type numbers during fight week.

Rugby another worldwide sport attracts massive crowds in attendance yet its not even shown in America. Wait to see how popular Rugby becomes in America once people understand how its played. Rugby makes American Football look BORING.

Football the worldwide sport (not the boring American sport) attracts massive crowds of 70,000 - 100,000 + in attendance. This sport has been a sleeping giant for decades within the American market thats finally starting to erupt. The signing of Football greatest Lionel Messi with Miami has shown how popular this sport can become in America. Everywhere Miami plays they've sold out every seat in every stadium they play within the first hour when tickets are put up for sale. Look at the UFC they can't even sell out PPV's with capacity 35,000 seats in American even though they will falsely claim during the event.

So youre saying espn+ is gonna drop the UFC for powerslap?