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News PPV further collapses
- Thread starter Deadwing88
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All by design. UFC realized ESPN is paying more than people who give them PPV money. Free 500k PPV buys every event plus probably some bonus if they actually sell a decent amount. I'm completely shocked these corporations burn so much money with no quality control for streaming content.
ESPN was always poorly managed. It's crazy some guy in a suit is probably in meeting using buzzwords like brand awareness and growth, defending their purchase of UFC rights. If UFC was as big of a sport as others they'd have a bigger magnifying glass to check the books on return. What a shame.
ESPN was always poorly managed. It's crazy some guy in a suit is probably in meeting using buzzwords like brand awareness and growth, defending their purchase of UFC rights. If UFC was as big of a sport as others they'd have a bigger magnifying glass to check the books on return. What a shame.
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Now the deals ending though and they gotta renegotiate.
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Good. I watch NFL, NCAA football, PGA golf, Olympics, tennis grand slam finals, and my local MLB/NHL team all for free on a $15 antenna.
PPV needs to kick the bucket, especially if it's not going to be a high end product
PPV needs to kick the bucket, especially if it's not going to be a high end product
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Pretty much nailed-it, on every level.
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I am praying to the MMA gods that all the bidders are forcing the UFC to have some quality control in some clause. If you think about the deal ESPN signed last time, there was more free money with lower interest rates to just throw random shit on the wall and see what works for streaming. Then it should be obvious to any of these companies what UFC has done during that deal this should be the time for reckoning for the UFC to pay for what they've done with short term profits.
However I can also see the UFC's growth just being enough for their analysts to overlook everything for the next 7 years and do the take exact retarded deal. ESPN isn't known for amazing business decisions and especially Disney lately. Still I know they've been cracking the whip down on losers, but UFC is a drop in the bucket for essentially owning a sport size-wise.
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I really think PPV is dead. The next deal will be an all in one deal with numbered cards included.
I dont think Netflix or Prime will really even bat an eye at a one billion a year deal for everything. I also really think it will balance out the product and we will see less straight up garbage cards.
I dont think Netflix or Prime will really even bat an eye at a one billion a year deal for everything. I also really think it will balance out the product and we will see less straight up garbage cards.
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I am getting the feeling Prime is more likely than Netflix
Part of that might be prime already having PPV capability.
We need someone with the BALLS to step up and boss the UFC around a bit and call them out on their bullshit.
UFC has been "failing up" for quite a while, by which I mean, they have been doing a terrible job but succeeding inspite of their objectively terrible job promoting and making cards. The roster is bloated but yet they haven't built new names, the known names are aging out which is a big problem (think of the biggest names in the sport, how many are 35+ ... it's a LOT)
It's time for a major shake up.
Even the fan base seems old.
Which makes sense if you consider ... they are still doing TUF
The entire company is badly badly out of touch.
Apex & Contender series suck
The Apex was always shit but the only reason it ever should have existed was Covid. The company chose to run empty shows because they had a loophole in their contract for free money but doing shows to no audience sucks for the fans and does nothing to build new fans. Going to a new place builds excitement. When UFC comes to my state I hear about it and people bring friends and girlfriends to see a show and the sport grows. Apex ain't grow shit but maybe hostility and disappointment.
Same shit with contender series.
It isn't building new fans or new stars
Bringing in champions of other orgs at least has the possibility of growing fanbases in those regions. Guy becomes a KSW champ or cage warriors or whatever and people from that area follow their UFC career and others hear about it and that builds something.
DWTNCS builds next to nothing.
its more dated reality TV era promotional bullshit.
In fact it HURTS the product because it waters down all the cards which get filled with these guys no one cares about
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They should not have raised ppv to $80 until they had a big star to back it. If they would have had a new Conor it would not have been an issue with sales. I think the other problem is UFC like many other sports are in a weird transition phase from cable to streaming. Viewers are getting lost in the shuffle. Even now some people dont know about espn plus.
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for real. Olympics free, super bowl free, world series free, championship golf and tennis free
all during primetime too
brb $70 for a midnight viewing of a fight
the model is stupid, time to admit it
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PPVs will stick around for forseable future imo. Their will just be less of them and they will stack them. It doesn't make sense to get rid of ppvs. If you have a Conor, Ronda, Gsp type star it makes UFC a ton of money. A guarantee amount from a streamer could never touch that.
UFC will just hold out until a new ppv star comes thru.
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That's another thing is the audience is aging out of staying up till 1am on Saturday night and the younger generation don't party like the older did.
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The funny part is even with UFC underperforming in ppv and certain other aspects. ESPN still desperately needs them and has to pay way more. UFC rights are up at the end of the year and everyone wants them. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount plus are heavily rumored to be bidding for them.
UFC is doubling up their money no matter what lol. Sports in general are getting ridiculous payouts for streaming deals. UFC has the advantage of being only major sports organization available for bidding in near future.
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Man this is probably the sad truth. We're stuck in this hell. Maybe we need an economic collapse soon because then the mega corps will have to tighten their belts and try to run profits over the speculative future value and competition games. Still think eventually this will hurt the UFC the longer it goes on.
