Early PPV estimates for UFC 140 at 480,000 buys

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/12/14/2637507/early-ppv-estimates-reveal-ufc-140-as-3rd-highest-ppv-of-the-year
http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/quicknews/article_11759.shtml
After a series of events drawing less than
300,000 pay-per-view buys, Jon Jones' second title defense of 2011 at
UFC 140 brought an uptick in business for the UFC. According to Dave
Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, early estimates for the event have it at around 480,000 buys.

That number puts it slightly behind Jones' bout with Quinton "Rampage"
Jackson in September and right on point with his fight with Mauricio
"Shogun" Rua in March.

However, considering the string of down business for the UFC on
pay-per-view recently, as well as Brock Lesnar's return coming later in
the month, this card was not expected to do quite this well, so this is a
very good early number.

i did not expect this card to get this many buys!

Mir, Big Nog and Tito being on the card also helped.

No college football to compete against either. It was the first week of no college football.

Man, why can't the UFC sell anymore?

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Man, why can't the UFC sell anymore?

Sarcasm? Or are you really asking?

OU wrote:

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Man, why can't the UFC sell anymore?

Sarcasm? Or are you really asking?

haha, ill stick to the sarcasm side as wolf has foreseen this about 4 months ago and most of us were on board.

R we at the point where 480 is a good buy rate?

captain organic wrote:

R we at the point where 480 is a good buy rate?

I consider it to be good or at the very least "solid".

captain organic wrote:

R we at the point where 480 is a good buy rate?

considering everything i think 480 is great! wait till they do the switch to fox/fx and the ads start rolling around more often.

captain organic wrote:

R we at the point where 480 is a good buy rate?

Yes. How quickly time flys. The Fox deal came not a moment too soon, with the continued decline in buys there is no way in another year a network would give the UFC the same kind of deal. I am worried about the growth of the sport stateside.

killerofchicken wrote:

captain organic wrote:

R we at the point where 480 is a good buy rate?

considering everything i think 480 is great! wait till they do the switch to fox/fx and the ads start rolling around more often.

I dunno, not that long ago they were hanging around the 1 mil mark, and that was pre fox.

and the first fox event had plenty of Hendo commercials and that produced a less then stellar buy rate.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

captain organic wrote:

R we at the point where 480 is a good buy rate?

Yes. How quickly time flys. The Fox deal came not a moment too soon, with the continued decline in buys there is no way in another year a network would give the UFC the same kind of deal. I am worried about the growth of the sport stateside.

I could be wrong, but I think MMA as a whole is still on the rise. Bellator's numbers were rising at the end of the season, HDNet has more and more promotions, MMA news shows are still popping up.

Not bad.

The sooner Bones gets on Fox the better.

Oversaturation

Not every title fight needs to be on PPV. Especially when a lot of them end up being one sided. I'm sure those days are almost over with FOX and they will save PPV's for the really marketable fights....but i'm sure they still make really good money off even their lowest selling PPV's.

Some of the ppl asking about these alleged low buy rates, are the same ppl who tried to tell me the Affliction: Banned 100,000+ buy rate was awesome and showed Fedor's drawing power.

100k for affliction was actually pretty impressive

It's all relative Andrew

UFC was drawing very strong buyrates on average in 2009 and 2010. 2011 has consistantly been well below par from that time, apart from a couple exceptions...and UFC is considered to be getting deeper and more mainstream by the day..which they are... so why?

Affliction: Banned drawing 100,000+ buyrates without the UFC marketing machine and highlighted by the guy who never had United States hype at the time, that is a very strong buyrate...considering Affliction's multi-million dollar undercard which was not needed and didnt really help them sell the PPV, not strong enough.

Remember, Zuffa thought Aldo-Faber was a success and it got 175K..which was more than they were going to consider a success, they said they were expecting around around what Banned got.

I concede the point Kings, but I wouldn't call the multiple water hazards of 2011 of failure. They maintained decent buys with multiple Main events falling apart for various reasons, plus Spike doing what they can to hurt the UFC on their way out the door, by not assisting with the advertising and counter-programming. I think 2012 is going to start slow and end up huge!