Coker comments on Bellator ratings downturn

[Meathead Jock]

For hardcore's yes, for casual fans it's not like it would be a ratings mega event.

I mean i'm pretty confident it would get better ratings than fighting Koreshkov or Lima again.

Less ratings than an MVP fight and probably less ratings than a Moose fight where they tie up two divisions for champions who haven't even defended their belts.

 

[InfinityLens]

Then why didn’t they stick with that garbage?

The million $ ?. My guess is Coker got scared off freakshows after Kimbo v DD5K. Hopefully these garbage ratings get him back on the freakshow band wagon.

 

[capo245]

The million $ ?. My guess is Coker got scared off freakshows after Kimbo v DD5K. Hopefully these garbage ratings get him back on the freakshow band wagon.

And there are plenty off freakshow fights to make $$$

 

[Ancient Warrior]

The million $ ?. My guess is Coker got scared off freakshows after Kimbo v DD5K. Hopefully these garbage ratings get him back on the freakshow band wagon.

Freak show fights don’t bother me.

It’s the fake WWE crap that’s cringeworthy.

 

[007]

Agree with both points.

The question is that is this “Valley” an industry wide problem, or is it a Bellator problem?

Industry

 

[lagofala]

Just wondering what numbers will look like if they were on Netflix.

 

[TKing]

Valley:

Couldve easily milked that, cut away and end with a "tune in next time for the shocking reveal that you will never see coming!"

 

[AronaBeatsJones]

Bellator's a strange one. They're the one that since Pride, have survived the longest and is well-supported by a conglomerate and a prominent television station, but in all that time, they've failed to develop their own stars.

• MVP has been in "prospect status" for like six years. He should either be forced into the Daley fight next, or be served up for MacDonald.
  
• Yankova has been protected, and just lost what was supposed to be a gimme.
• Heather Hardy was put on the same protected track, and still lost her second fight in what was also a gimme.
• Jack Swagger's now also going to be protected, and it'll likely be years before anything of significance materializes with him. Plus, he's no where near the star CM Punk and Brock Lesnar were from the pro wrestling world.
• Liam McGeary fizzled out after what was supposed to be a passing-of-the-torch moment when he defeated Ortiz. Last I saw, he was in the midcard, and LHW is run by former UFC contenders.
  
• Rafael Lovato Jr. still has some promise at MW, but will likely get demolished by Mousasi if that fight is next.
• Neiman Gracie, Baby Slice, and Dillon Danis are all protected at WW (so won't fight each other), and like Swagger, will take years before they become anything.

The only promise I see is with Aaron Pico, and it's too bad he got starched in his debut fight by Zach Freeman (who, honestly, Bellator should've gotten behind afterward considering what an awesome personality he is), but unfortunately, Pico's in the same division as the only real homegrown star Bellator has developed (Chandler).

 

[FKA]

Yes and no, there best ratings come from the guys in the past and some of the guys on the down swing from the UFC. You got have name value on cards for people to even tune into see the up and comers or homegrown talent.

The problem is they put together a decent card on paper and follow it up with crap show after crap show usually. They do nothing to keep any momentum going from event to event. It's like the next card headlined by Budd. The only reason there doing that is to see if these new women viewers that Paramount has pulled in will watch a woman fight in Bellator. It's almost laughable at how Coker utilizes this roster. The dude seriously just can't think big picture long term. Everything is about the next event and that is it. The only time he thinks down the road is about some tournament that will save the day or expanding more and more when you can't even get it right at home right now, its a chaotic mess right now.

The facts are Viacom spent the money securing guys Coker wanted over the last two years. They re-branded the channel to Paramount and overall have attracted more viewers to the channel just like they wanted. But Bellator's ratings have been cut down by 250K or so per an event and Paramount ratings across the board avg. upward. That can't be good for Bellator no matter how we want to spin it. It also tells us that on some level Bellator's old avg ratings were inflated by some lazy non Bellator fans since they have abandon the brand simply cause Paramount doesn't replay whatever sad man show they use to have on for whatever reason.

The reason the shows are so erratic quality wise is the fact that the home market isn't in the upswing like it was and they are trying to diversify by becoming a presence in the UK and Europe.Alot of people see viacom and bellator as a north American company but Viacom owns channels globally and are a global entity.Bellator is having trouble appeasing all of its partner channels with live programming without having to tape delay for others.They were spreading themselves too thin trying to appease everyone instead of coming up with a viable option.

But i think the western euro series will help solve this by giving Europe a steady dose of live events featuring bellator veterans as well as local and or regional guys for them to get behind.It will allow more stacked US shows because they won't need to do as many overseas shows with the main roster and can provide more live events for all regions they broadcast to.

Coker said they have been trying to figure out the broadcasting dilemma between all the platforms they have good to see they are actively trying to do something.


Ufc numbers are down by around the same percentage it' just more pronounced since there numbers were smaller to begin with.


It's good to hear they are still moving forward and trying to adapt.

 

[killakillakilla]

Didn’t their numbers start to tank when spike changed to Paramount? If so than that’s the obvious reason for the low numbers imo

 

[ThunderL1ps]

Valley:

Tito is the one that should have been wearing the bag over his head...until this very day.

 

[InfinityLens]

Didn’t their numbers start to tank when spike changed to Paramount? If so than that’s the obvious reason for the low numbers imo

That, in fewer homes, and Coker being scared of freakshows.

 

[killakillakilla]

That, in fewer homes, and Coker being scared of freakshows.

Yea but if it happened at the time spike changed to Paramount, like the first month after the name change boom a significant decline in viewership, that obviously means that spike changing their name is the reason for the decline in viewership. It has nothing to do with freakshow fights.

I lost the channel when spike changed to Paramount so I haven’t been able to watch Bellator live on my tv since

 

[InfinityLens]

Yea but if it happened at the time spike changed to Paramount, like the first month after the name change boom a significant decline in viewership, that obviously means that spike changing their name is the reason for the decline in viewership. It has nothing to do with freakshow fights.

I lost the channel when spike changed to Paramount so I haven’t been able to watch Bellator live on my tv since

That's definitely the most recent reason, but those freakshows were the peak. If he went back to those they would get a ratings boost

 

[DataBreach]

Bellator's a strange one. They're the one that since Pride, have survived the longest and is well-supported by a conglomerate and a prominent television station, but in all that time, they've failed to develop their own stars.

• MVP has been in "prospect status" for like six years. He should either be forced into the Daley fight next, or be served up for MacDonald.
  
• Yankova has been protected, and just lost what was supposed to be a gimme.
• Heather Hardy was put on the same protected track, and still lost her second fight in what was also a gimme.
• Jack Swagger's now also going to be protected, and it'll likely be years before anything of significance materializes with him. Plus, he's no where near the star CM Punk and Brock Lesnar were from the pro wrestling world.
• Liam McGeary fizzled out after what was supposed to be a passing-of-the-torch moment when he defeated Ortiz. Last I saw, he was in the midcard, and LHW is run by former UFC contenders.
  
• Rafael Lovato Jr. still has some promise at MW, but will likely get demolished by Mousasi if that fight is next.
• Neiman Gracie, Baby Slice, and Dillon Danis are all protected at WW (so won't fight each other), and like Swagger, will take years before they become anything.

The only promise I see is with Aaron Pico, and it's too bad he got starched in his debut fight by Zach Freeman (who, honestly, Bellator should've gotten behind afterward considering what an awesome personality he is), but unfortunately, Pico's in the same division as the only real homegrown star Bellator has developed (Chandler).

Pico fights are 145. Chandler fights at 155.

 

[AGEZ909]

Yea but if it happened at the time spike changed to Paramount, like the first month after the name change boom a significant decline in viewership, that obviously means that spike changing their name is the reason for the decline in viewership. It has nothing to do with freakshow fights.

I lost the channel when spike changed to Paramount so I haven’t been able to watch Bellator live on my tv since

This is true. Numbers had been slipping under spike, but I’ve personally seen a steep dip of like 150k viewers for each show post rebranding.

 

[Lucifer Alpha]

That's definitely the most recent reason, but those freakshows were the peak. If he went back to those they would get a ratings boost

There are not enough freakshows to sustain a fight promotion and it delegitimizes the real fighters in the promotion. Why would anyone care about a champion of a circus league?

 

[ANIM4L]

Yo I believe him.

THey have some good fighters they're building up. Plus, no USADA.

 

[skylolow]

The reason the shows are so erratic quality wise is the fact that the home market isn't in the upswing like it was and they are trying to diversify by becoming a presence in the UK and Europe.Alot of people see viacom and bellator as a north American company but Viacom owns channels globally and are a global entity.Bellator is having trouble appeasing all of its partner channels with live programming without having to tape delay for others.They were spreading themselves too thin trying to appease everyone instead of coming up with a viable option.

But i think the western euro series will help solve this by giving Europe a steady dose of live events featuring bellator veterans as well as local and or regional guys for them to get behind.It will allow more stacked US shows because they won't need to do as many overseas shows with the main roster and can provide more live events for all regions they broadcast to.

Coker said they have been trying to figure out the broadcasting dilemma between all the platforms they have good to see they are actively trying to do something.


Ufc numbers are down by around the same percentage it' just more pronounced since there numbers were smaller to begin with.


It's good to hear they are still moving forward and trying to adapt.

I honestly believe this "Western Euro" will fall flat, if it even gets off the ground. Honestly, does it really matter if they hold a show in Greece or whatever? Paramount network is either bought by the cable/satellite providers in that country or its not. Ratings are saying people aren't really caring for Bellator so to think that is the cherry on top to push a deal over or get these distributors to pay an extra .25 cents a subscriber is very questionable. Maybe it does in a market or two is probably best case scenario.

The whole damn problem in all this is Bellator is own by there media distributor. The only way they cash in is on ratings, attendance, sponsorship, and merch/licensing. Unfortunately, they can't cash in on the biggest piece of any MMA pie, media distribution rights and PPV. From the start I was questionable of Viacom owning Bellator because of this. Bellator does fine for attendance, its everything else that is the problem. The whole model is based around increasing avg. ratings to increase advertising prices and that is all Paramount/Viacom cares about. If you can't accomplish this your only going to go so far.

Coker talking about media dilemma is laughable. They can't even get the network that owns them to show a live sports show(Bellator) live on the west coast, let alone any other event going on around the world. You know why that is, its simply because Transformers being shown for the 500th time pulls in more people at 6PM on the West Coast than a live Bellator MMA event would. So they cash in on that and then play Bellator tape delayed. It really is as simple as that and that is probably the same thing happening around the world on Paramount networks.

If they don't fix the ratings nothing good is going to come Bellator's way. Eventually, the bean counters will say its a lost cause and unfortunately it isn't looking good right now and I don't think Coker and the people at Paramount overseeing Coker are the right people to fix it.

 

[skylolow]

Yea but if it happened at the time spike changed to Paramount, like the first month after the name change boom a significant decline in viewership, that obviously means that spike changing their name is the reason for the decline in viewership. It has nothing to do with freakshow fights.

I lost the channel when spike changed to Paramount so I haven’t been able to watch Bellator live on my tv since

I don't know if you read the whole thread. But Paramount's viewership is higher than Spike's total viewership. Mainly cause it isn't be marketing as a "man channel". So all these Spike viewers simply abandon Bellator just because of that???? Those aren't fans you can count on at all. A fan would tune into Lifetime if Bellator was on it. Tells me Bellator's ratings were kind of inflated on Spike which makes sense since the ratings were always very eerie similar for most events regardless of the fight card. It also kind of tells you with that big of an avg. ratings drop does Bellator really have a home with Paramount?? The viewers Paramount is drawing in aren't tuning into Bellator.


I hate to sound all doom and gloom but the facts aren't looking good for Bellator this year. Viacom invested money into expanding the talent level of Bellator and Bellator isn't delivering in the ratings where they make the most of there money. That isn't good on any level and you can't spin that as being good with out looking like a homer/moron.