So how big is UFC on Fox in the US?

Grijswaarde

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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.

<mma4>
 
I disagree about one big fight making this a PPV card.
 
From what I see the ratings are just good enough for it to not be pulled from Fox.
 
Considering FOX pays UFC and they are trying to get a new deal signs for approx $400 million I would say UFC needs to put on a amazing card Live and Free on Fox

And Diney just bought Fox for like $53 Billion
 
usa_today_10180739.0.jpg
 
I disagree about one big fight making this a PPV card.

Really? Lawler, Dos Anjos, Lamas, Emmett, Ponzi coming from an awesome KO win over Gunnar, Mike Perry, Teixera, Cirkunov being 4-1 in the UFC.

Let's say we add Namajuna versus TBA as the main, that is an awesome PPV imo. And i don't even really like WMMA.
 
Considering FOX pays UFC and they are trying to get a new deal signs for approx $400 million I would say UFC needs to put on a amazing card Live and Free on Fox

And Diney just bought Fox for like $53 Billion

shitty X-Mens movies incoming then...
 
Really? Lawler, Dos Anjos, Lamas, Emmett, Ponzi coming from an awesome KO win over Gunnar, Mike Perry, Teixera, Cirkunov being 4-1 in the UFC.

Let's say we add Namajuna versus TBA as the main, that is an awesome PPV imo.

No not really. Sorry.
 
Considering FOX pays UFC and they are trying to get a new deal signs for approx $400 million I would say UFC needs to put on a amazing card Live and Free on Fox

And Diney just bought Fox for like $53 Billion
They didn’t buy Fox. They bought some of Fox’s assets.
 
They're trying to get a better tv deal so they have to get some amazing numbers to make that happen.
 

I hespect your opinion on this, I just don't see those fights being top PPV worthy fights.

That said, hardcores will watch (me included).

But even putting Rose-JJ 2 as the headliner, this would do awful PPV #s.
 
Really? Lawler, Dos Anjos, Lamas, Emmett, Ponzi coming from an awesome KO win over Gunnar, Mike Perry, Teixera, Cirkunov being 4-1 in the UFC.

Let's say we add Namajuna versus TBA as the main, that is an awesome PPV imo. And i don't even really like WMMA.
No not really. Sorry.
I'd argue that with Namajunas it would be on par with some of the lower-end PPV-events we've seen.
For example UFC 216.
* Ferguson vs Lee. I'd argue Lawler vs RDA is at least on par with that fight. If not bigger.
* DJ vs Borg - Sure it was a title fight, and certainly higher up the rankings. But I think Perry vs Ponzi seems more entertaining and crowd-pleasing.
* Werdum vs Harris - While Werdum is a big name, Harris was a noname. Glover vs Cirkunov seems on par with that fight.
* Dariush vs Dunham - Meh. Bigger than Cannonier vs Blachowitz, but still not big enough to be a significant PPV-factor.
* Besides those fights there was just nonames on the undercards
 
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Could be the average Fox card gets 2-3 million viewers per card compared to about 600,000-700,000 for the FS1 fight nights. In the US, Fox is a major network channel that can be picked up with a digital antenna by most Americans, even without cable TV. While FS1 is a cable TV sports network that's probably only on in 60% of the households, if that.

Edit: Plus they bust out the really awesome effects...
junior_dos_santos_UFC_FOX_funny1.gif
 
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
~~~~~~~~~~
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:
  1. get some big fights on Fox 6 or 8 times a year, and
  2. 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
 
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Didn't Disney just buy out Fox?
 
I remember when the deal first came about, the "Big FOX" cards were 3-4 times a year and pretty much on par with numbered cards, but structured a little differently. Sometimes a big title fight, or sometimes several massive non-title fights. I think they put the first Dos Santos/Velasquez fight on there and it was the only fight they were showing, and it was over very quickly which pissed a lot of people off. But that "Big FOX" treatment petered out after the first year or two.

Just my experience of watching the coverage of it as a European. For us there's the benefit of it being on a bit earlier, but the massive downside is that any cards televised in America are absolutely riddled with a cancerous level of advertising breaks that can result in a completely unwatchable card.
 
Sucks cause only like 3 cards for free free and most are fighters that already fought on fox cards.
 
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