UFC Prelims on FX ratings up again; PPV Buy Rate at 375K

http://mmajunkie.com/news/27617/ufc-144-ratings-ufc-prelims-draw-1-5-million-fx-viewers.mma
FX drew a solid 1.5 million viewers for this past weekend's UFC 144 "UFC Prelims" broadcast, MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed with industry sources.

The two-hour Feb. 25 broadcast preceded the UFC 144 pay-per-view main card and featured four bouts live from Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

The broadcast outdrew the first two "UFC Prelims" specials on FX, which drew 888,000 viewers (UFC 142) and 1.3 million viewers (UFC 143).

This past weekend's FX broadcast featured UFC 144 winners Takanori Gomi, Vaughan Lee, Riki Fukuda and Chris Cariaso. They produced a knockout, a submission and two decision finishes. Lee, in fact, earned a $65,000 "Submission of the Night" bonus for his armbar win over Norifumi "Kid" Yamamota.

While FX broadcasts Friday's UFC on FX 2 main card, its next "UFC Prelims" special doesn't take place for another two months, when UFC 145 heads to Atlanta on April 21.

The UFC moved its "UFC Prelims" specials to the FOX-owned FX in January. Previously, Spike TV aired 27 "UFC Prelims" specials that averaged 1.5 million viewers.

The full list of "UFC Prelims" specials on FX include:

UFC 144 ratings: 1.5 million viewers
UFC 143 ratings: 1.3 million
UFC 142 ratings: 880,000

Have any Spike prelim ratings to compare to?

Farmer1906 wrote:

Have any Spike prelim ratings to compare to?

The full list of "UFC Prelims" broadcasts and ratings as compiled by MMAjunkie.com includes:

1) UFC 126 (February 2011): 2 million viewers
2) UFC 141 (December 2011): 1.8 million viewers
3) UFC 109 (February 2010): 1.7 million
4) UFC 135 (September 2011): 1.6 million
4) UFC 131 (June 2011): 1.6 million
5) UFC 114 (May 2010): 1.6 million
7) UFC 129 (April 2010): 1.5 million
7) UFC 108 (January 2010): 1.5 million
7) UFC 121 (October 2010): 1.5 million
7) UFC 123 (November 2010): 1.5 million
11) UFC 133 (August 2011): 1.4 million
11) UFC 104 (October 2009): 1.4 million
11) UFC 103 (September 2009): 1.4 million
14) UFC 134 (August 2011): 1.3 million
14) UFC 130 (May 2011): 1.3 million
14) UFC 128 (March 2011): 1.3 million
14) UFC 119 (September 2010): 1.3 million
14) UFC 116 (July 2010): 1.3 million
14) UFC 115 (June 2010): 1.3 million
14) UFC 106 (November 2009): 1.3 million
21) UFC 139 (November 2011): 1.2 million
21) UFC 132 (July 2011): 1.2 million
21) UFC 111 (March 2010): 1.2 million
24) UFC 137 (October 2011): 1.1 million
24) UFC 118 (August 2010): 1.1 million
26) UFC 136 (October 2011): 1 million
27) UFC 125 (January 2011): 829,000*
28) UFC 140 (December 2011): 808,000*
29) UFC 127 (February 2011): 714,000*
* - Aired on ION Television, not Spike TV

Already tied for 7th all time. Wouldn't be shocked if one of the bigger fights (GSP-Condit & Anderson-Sonnen) top 2 million.

People are still getting use to the UFC being on FX. But it does get good pub from the FOX shows.

1.5 million ain't bad at all. Good to see people tuning in for the prelims still.

It is just going to get bigger. This deal with Fox and them treating it like another great sporting event, will trigger the 3rd explosion of the sport. First was lift off with Royce and crew, then we had the 2nd under TUF 1 with the bout of Griffin & Bonnar. This puppy is ready pop. Don't be surprised if in a few years Fox wants to renegotiate the terms and get more fights.

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

It is just going to get bigger. This deal with Fox and them treating it like another great sporting event, will trigger the 3rd explosion of the sport. First was lift off with Royce and crew, then we had the 2nd under TUF 1 with the bout of Griffin & Bonnar. This puppy is ready pop. Don't be surprised if in a few years Fox wants to renegotiate the terms and get more fights.

I'd say #3 was UFC 100. 1.6 millions buys is amazing. Only 3 PPVs from 1991 to 2011 on HBO (boxing) were higher.

According to MMA Weekly, the UFC Prelims averaged 1.41 million viewers over the 25 episodes for the 1 hour prelim show on Spike TV.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/2/29/2834071/ufc-144-ppv-numbers-mma-news

There was a lot of hand-wringing going into UFC 144 that it would not perform well on pay-per-view (PPV) and that the main event should have been saved for UFC on Fox 3. It appears that those concerns were unfounded. Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer is reporting that early PPV estimates are "about 375,000 buys."

Those numbers, on top of the UFC's best yet numbers for preliminaries on FX, are a very strong performance for the UFC and ex-champion Frankie Edgar. Edgar's most recent title defenses at UFC 125 and UFC 136 (both against Gray Maynard) did 270K and 225K respectively.

Edgar did headline UFC 118 which did 570K PPVs, but that was against B.J. Penn and also featured a heavily promoted Randy Couture vs. boxer James Toney bout.

Dave Meltzer wrote:

It's a good sign because the usual rule is that an overseas show doesn't do as well as a North American show, and may be a very positive sign for the upcoming Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen fight. The surprising numbers have started ever since the move back an hour which seems to have resulted in stronger West Coast numbers. That also coincides with the FOX deal going into effect.

As far as reasons, I did see a lot more advertising for this than usual with a lot of televised stuff. The pre-show being two hours and doing a good rating may have helped. The TV commercial was also good. And it could be that Edgar was finally getting over (in looking at trending patterns before the show and who had the most interest, it was Edgar slightly ahead of Jackson, with Henderson about half that of Edgar and Ryan Bader next, and well below Henderson). This also came with a Countdown show airing on Fuel (it probably aired on Fox Sports Net as well but wasn't advertised and probably didn't do much in the way of viewers). But across the board, everything was positive here.

Edgar isn't a draw. I think Bendo or Showtime will be better draws.

The lack or Anderson, GSP, and Lesnar lately has killed the buys. Those 3 fought 3 times in the past 12 months and Lesnar is gone.