Spike to air Bellator pre lims online

http://mmajunkie.com/news/25242/bellator-expands-spike-com-preliminary-streams-to-worldwide-audiences.mma
Bellator Fighting Championships' preliminary-card streams on Spike.com are now available worldwide.

Just prior to its season-five debut this past week, Bellator announced the streaming deal with Spike.com, which puts each event's untelevised preliminary card on a live web stream.

However, the Bellator 49 stream was limited to the U.S.

But today, officials announced a change.

"Bellator prelims will be on Spike.com worldwide starting this Saturday," the company tweeted.

That's particularly good news ahead of Saturday's Bellator 50 event, which takes place at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. While the opening round of the season-five middleweight tournament fills the MTV2-televised main card (7 p.m. ET/PT), a deep, eight-fight preliminary card is featured on the Spike.com stream (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT).

Notables on the Bellator 50 preliminary card include recent "E:60" subject Rad Martinez, who takes on former Marine Brian Van Hoven. Additionally, former Bellator tourney competitor Luis Palomino meets Edson Berto.

As MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recently reported, the Spike.com streams are likely a precursor to a full Bellator move to Spike TV. The basic-cable channel ends its live-event broadcasts with the UFC in 2012. Additionally, if the UFC buys back its library and shifts that content to FOX, which recently signed a seven-year deal with the UFC (for content on FOX, FX and FUEL TV) in 2012, Bellator's live shows could move to Spike TV, a sister property of MTV2.

Cool stuff. I really like the last part of that article.

OU wrote:

Wolfgangsta wrote:

I said ok dumbdick. Lol. A Bellator deal never happens. Its possible in a year n a half but Sf will be there already.

SF will not have a single event on SPIKE. When you lose you must take it like a man Wolf. You must have the picture and text I select. No adding of text. Just take it like a man.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/3/8/2855173/bellator-caught-in-friday-night-wars-with-ufc-and-wwe-looking-ahead
The long odds facing Rebney on MTV2 on Fridays are a good reason he's looking ahead to next year when the promotion will finally debut on Spike TV. Rebney talked to Mike Chiappetta at MMA Fighting:

"The announcement of the transition to Spike, it felt a long time away, but now you look around the corner and it's like nine months until the premiere," he said during an interview with MMA Fighting. "It's an exciting time. There's a lot going on, but it's exciting."

Rebney has Spike's full support behind him because of the recent deal with the cable channel's parent company, Viacom, which bought a majority stake in the promotion last October. While he remains in charge of the company's day-to-day business, the new ownership group provided him with a deep and experienced support system that's fully invested in Bellator's success.

As a result, there are plans to launch Bellator into its new home right at the start of 2013 in a kind of grand re-opening that will trumpet its move. But it's not simply about the live fights. According to Rebney, in the works are a potential reality series, a "best of" show and other ancillary programming that will make Bellator a major presence on Spike. When that channel first launched UFC programming back in 2005, it was something of a happy accident that had to be built upon. This time around, the foundation has already been poured and the house will be ready when the new tenant moves in.

"It will probably premiere and kickoff on January 1," he said. "The specificity of when things hit hasn't been set up, but I know we'll get a great push from our partners at Spike coming out of the box. My assumption is that it will start super-quickly, and all the talk is about starting it super-quickly as well."

OU wrote:

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Does anyone think the UFC is going to just buy back those rights without any protection from Bellator? It is in Spikes interest to get fresh MMA as soon as possible. Ill protect OU from his self imposed madness by offering a disclaimer on what is typically implied and understood by saying IN MY OPINION the evidence clearly points toward SF moving to Spike.

Well if they don't buy it back don't you think SPIKE will continue to use them as a counter to LIVE shows? If Bellator is what they really want, the majority of reports lean that way, you know they will counter the shit out of live shows. Just like the article states, it is an interesting situation.

Doubt they buy it back, anything that Spike TV produced they get to keep, so they have a pretty big vault of UFC shit locked up to counter program whenever they want.