UFC Signs TV Deal with Fox

[dbreiden83080]

Ace posted this in News and Notes..

Big news that should free the UFC up to put on some huge cards for Fox.. A card stacked with the likes Silva, GSP, Rampage, Jones, Cain, Brock Etc should do big ratings..

Originally Posted by ace3g

Looks like the UFC has reached a deal with FOX starting in 2012 (Spike and Versus contracts end after 2011) http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/08/1...lshare_twitter


http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Report-UFC-Signs-TV-Deal-with-Fox-34819

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has reportedly signed a multi-year contract with the Fox Broadcasting Company, taking effect in January 2012.

According to a report from the Sports Business Journal, the promotion has inked a deal with the network for seven or eight years, giving Fox the rights to broadcast as many as four live MMA events per year.

Most of the UFC's weekly programming, which currently airs on Spike and Versus, will reportedly now be broadcast on the Fox-owned FX channel. This includes events such as “Ultimate Fight Night,” as well the UFC's long running reality show, “The Ultimate Fighter.” According to the SBJ's sources, Fox could pay the UFC up to $90 million, and a deal announcement could come as early as this week.

Fox subsidiary Fuel TV will also benefit from some UFC programming. However, the SBJ writes that Fox will not re-brand Fuel TV to give the UFC its own channel.

The UFC was rumored to be in talks to purchase struggling cable network G4 with plans to transform it into an independent UFC network. However, those plans seem to have been scrapped in favor of the aforementioned arrangement with Fox. The promotion's long-standing contract with Spike TV will reportedly expire at the end of 2011.

[MannyIsGod]

Cool!

Sucks for Vs, though. I'm sure NBC is pissed.

[ace3g]

If it happens, it will be great because I missed out on most of the Versus cards (I have Dish Network). Spike did great with their coverage and it will be odd to see UFC on Fox commercials; but it will great for the sport moving to one of the big stations.

Five Questions About the UFC/Fox Network TV Deal

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/8/16/2366700/five-questions-about-the-ufc-fox-network-tv-deal-mma-news

[dbreiden83080]

2 that caught my attention..


1. Will the UFC maintain control of production?

The UFC protects its brand image like a mama bear with her cub. Rumored deals in the past have fallen through as a result of the UFC's insistence that they control the broadcast. The terms of the deal, to my amateur eye, suggest that the UFC left some money on the table for that to happen. That still doesn't preclude Cleatus the Robot from shadow boxing in the corner of our screens.

99% sure you will see Goldie/Rogan and the crew do these cards.. Lets face it all other MMA commentators completely suck.. Once the SF deal is up you'll never see Frank Shamrock call a fight..


5. What does this mean for the fighters?

The big-time draws like GSP and Lesnar are going to want to stay away from Fox unless the UFC guarantees them money to supplant their loss of cuts of PPV revenue. For everyone else, especially the guys at the low end of a main card, this is an opportunity to make good money on sponsorships. A lot of guys just got an artificial pay raise with this move.

Dana and the Fertttas will have to bite the bullet on paying top stars big time guarantees if they expect to get them on these cards.. Or restructure their deals to account for certian pay-days if certain ratings are met.. No way guys like Brock, GSP, Silva, Jones are gonna do these cards if all they are guaranteed is their show money which is usually in the 200-400 thousand range.. I know the top end stars gets around 2.50 per PPV buy so they can make in the 3 mil range per fight if the PPV is good enough..

[Trainwreck2100]

looks like spike will end up changing formats after all

[strosFan2]

FOX Schedules Major Press Conference for Thursday; Several UFC Fighters Head to Los Angeles http://ht.ly/65P0s #MMA #UFC

[dbreiden83080]

Jones or Rampage vs Rashad on Fox in 2012

Hey i can dream right..

[DarkReign]

The NHL is paid $50 million a year from NBC.

UFC just landed a (reported) $90 million a year deal with FOX.

Jesus, MMA really is the sport of the future. Meteoric rise, astonishing. In 5-10 years, MMA/UFC will be battling the NBA for 3rd place with comparable dollar figures to match.

[strosFan2]

The NHL is paid $50 million a year from NBC.

UFC just landed a (reported) $90 million a year deal with FOX.

Jesus, MMA really is the sport of the future. Meteoric rise, astonishing. In 5-10 years, MMA/UFC will be battling the NBA for 3rd place with comparable dollar figures to match.

For sure, and Dana White is the right president to do it. His passion for what he does has made the UFC what it is today...still a lot of big things to come from UFC/MMA

[dbreiden83080]

For sure this is a big deal.. The UFC will not mess this chance up you are gonna see huge cards with mega ratings in 2012 on Sat Nights.. This a huge step forward for MMA

[ace3g]

UFC & Fox: What should fans expect?


At this point, it seems like everybody except the UFC itself has confirmed the news that the fight company has agreed to a long-term television deal with Fox.

We’d heard rumblings for a couple weeks that the UFC’s once-hot talks with NBC Sports had cooled and on Tuesday the Sports Business Journal broke the story that the promotion and Fox were on the verge of announcing a partnership. Sources at the network have reportedly confirmed the news with MMA news websites and a vaguely defined conference call is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. UFC President Dana White has so far refused to confirm or deny, but for all intents and purposes, it looks like this thing is actually going down.

If true, it means we’ve finally arrived at the holy grail of the UFC’s 10-year run under Zuffa, LLC. For the first time, MMA’s biggest (and, let’s face it, best) promoter will get the opportunity to showcase live fights on network television, with all the added benefits and pressures that come along with it.

So, what can we expect from a relationship between the UFC and Fox?

Expect better results than what we’ve seen before, for starters. Network television has long been the white whale of the MMA industry after a couple of lesser companies – EliteXC and pre-Zuffa Strikeforce – both chased it, with disastrous consequences. Criticize UFC brass as you like, but one of the things we know they can do successfully is produce live MMA shows that look great on TV. Zuffa has the capability to be far more consistent and far more professional than EliteXC or Strikeforce ever were and if a marriage between an MMA company and a television conglomerate ever had a chance to work out, it’s this one.

Because of that, don’t expect much to change about the look and feel of live events. The UFC has always been uber-protective of its product and an insistence on retaining exclusive control over its production values has killed potential TV deals in the past. Aside from a few new network logos floating around, we shouldn’t anticipate much different in the look and feel of UFC shows. It’s not like Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will be calling the action from cageside. At least, we hope not. It’ll probably still be Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan. Just, you know, on a five-second delay.

Expect expectations. If reports are true that bidding reached as much as $90 million for the UFC’s current menu of programming plus four live shows per year, Fox is certainly going to expect some significant return on its investment. Exactly what will constitute a “success” for the UFC’s early ventures on Fox remains to be seen, but with Strikeforce pulling down an average of 4.04 million viewers during its first show on CBS in Nov., 2009, it doesn’t feel unreasonable that the UFC would be able to meet such numbers in the early going and far exceed them over the long-term.

To do that, of course, it’ll have to commit some of its top talent to free TV broadcasts with a regularity it never has before. The UFC’s main focus will likely always be pay-per-view, but with the vastly increased exposure and payoff Fox can provide compared to previous partners SpikeTV and Versus, it’ll need to consistently present the best it has to offer in order to capitalize on that potential. If anything, network television will give the UFC a greater ability to familiarize a far wider audience with its top fighters and then mobilize said audience to PPV.

Expect competition. The door has not yet even slammed behind the UFC and there are rumblings that SpikeTV might move to replace it with Bellator. There were additional recent reports that the new ProElite venture is also already thinking about television, though its executives have said that would be premature. One thing is certain however, if the UFC and Fox can maintain a successful partnership for any amount of time, you’ll see new competitors start to appear, as the other networks will certainly want to get their own taste of the action and end up playing copycat.

http://espn.go.com/blog/mma/post?id=3794

[ace3g]

Presser is today at 1 p.m. EST looking for a link, hopefully they will stream it somewhere

[strosFan2]

Just got an email from UFC:
Special Announcement Today At 1pm ET /10am PT
Watch the live press conference on UFC.com

[ace3g]

Dana in CIA Pop mode, lol

danawhite Dana White
Good Morning! I have a funny feeling today is gonna be a GREAT DAY!!!!!

[ace3g]

arielhelwani Ariel Helwani
Ok, I think it's official http://t.co/PHNFLQ4

like Strosfan said, the stream is now up on UFC.com now: http://www.ufc.com/media/081711-live-stream-press-conference

Some of the major announcements:

Pre and Post fight interviews will be on Fuel

First UFC on Fox Event Set For November 12 http://t.co/tZsi8s1

TUF will now be live on FX, air on Fridays now

Official Announcement: http://www.ufc.com/news/ufc-on-fox-announcement081811

The coaches on TUF will be training during the 12 weeks during the show, and then fight at the end of the year on PPV #UFConFox

TUF: Show will be shot over 13 weeks, each episode edited in real time, will air Friday nights followed by a live fight ufc.com

TUF will also follow - live - the training camps of the coaches who are brought in to fight on the finale

TUF format - coaches announce who's eligible, fans vote on which matchups they want to see the next week.

http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/1501292413/UFCONFOX.jpg

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.mmafighting.com/media/2011/08/ufc1.jpg

Here is a photo gallery: http://www.mmafighting.com/photos/ufc-on-fox-announcement-photos/#photo-6 : interesting to see Shad still has his hand wrapped, I remember it being wrapped after the fight but never saw an injury report anywhere

[dbreiden83080]

Fox Promo is awesome...



GeK-YhHX5SE

[ace3g]

Here is the promo that was shown

GeK-YhHX5SE

lol exact same time dbreiden83080, was reading something interesting, quote from Lorenzo


But on such a momentous occasion for the UFC, it looks like the promotion and its new network partner are doing everything possible to make the Nov. 12 a ratings success.

"We'll be out of there before Pacquiao even walks to the ring," UFC executive Lorenzo Fertitta told the "Las Vegas Sun." "This is going to be a perfect night for any fight fan. Get together with your friends, watch two big fights in the UFC and then change the channel to ride into the Pacquiao pay-per-view."

Fertitta added that should the two main card bouts be quick, more bouts from the preliminary card will be aired. The pace of things will be quicker, though, on live network TV.

"It's going to be a little different with the first one," Fertitta said. "It's going to literally be back-to-back action. We aren't going to mess around with a lot of pre-fight commentary, post-fight commentary. We are going to roll right in, set up the fights and let the action go."

http://mmajunkie.com/news/24880/ufc-on-fox-main-card-features-just-two-fights.mma?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mmajunkie+%28MMAjunkie.com+Fe ed%29

Hopefully this is only because of the Pacman fight, that they will only have 2 main card fights the first time.

[dbreiden83080]

HA!!


Same time Ace..

[ace3g]

Promo vid for TUF Live, that they showed during the UFC on Fox Presser
l_OraxckhX4&feature=player_embedded

[ace3g]

According to Greg Beacham LA Based AP reporter, tweeted this after interview with Dana White:

Also intriguing: The new @UFCONFOXSports deal could include cageside play-by-play from @joerogan and Goldy on Fox radio stations.

[Red Hawk #21]

That promo reminded me of my boy JT Money, I hope he's doing ok nowadays...

[DarkReign]

The NHL is paid $50 million a year from NBC.

UFC just landed a (reported) $90 million a year deal with FOX.

Jesus, MMA really is the sport of the future. Meteoric rise, astonishing. In 5-10 years, MMA/UFC will be battling the NBA for 3rd place with comparable dollar figures to match.

I fucked up.

The NHL just signed a deal that pays them $200 million per year with NBC.

Still though, the UFC's contract is nothing to sneeze at.