Bellator working on new contract to feature live TV deal

http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/10/19/bellators-rebney-live-tv-deal-a-must-no-obstacles-to-alvarez/

Quote :

But company Bjorn Rebney recognizes that addressing the issue is a pivotal development in any future growth. Currently in the midst of negotiations for TV rights to the upcoming fourth season which will begin in February 2011, Rebney says live television is a must.

"There's no question it's problematic," he told Ariel Helwani during Monday's MMA Hour. "There's no question it's an issue that for us to continue to evolve as a force in mixed martial arts from a promotional perspective, it's one that we're going to have to overcome and it's what I've been working on diligently with my team for a number of months now."

Rebney gave no indication as to whether Bellator would stay with current television partners including Fox Sports Net and NBC or move elsewhere, but sounded confident a deal would be reached shortly. More importantly for fans, he said the deal would guarantee live airings, finally addressing the preemption issues he termed "debilitating."

Fox Sports Net currently airs events in their entirety, though depending on other programming, some of FSN's 19 affiliates delay airings by as much as 48 hours.

"We're going to have some very big things to announce in short order," Rebney said. "They're not small deals, they're big deals and that take a lot of effort and a lot of time, and that's just the nature of the beast when you're cutting deals and television alliances.

"I fully anticipate we'll be announcing where we're going to be from a television perspective long-term long before season four kicks off," he continued.

An absolute must.

Bellator's recent hwy title fight was not televised live, can't have that if you want to be a big time promotion.

As noted if WEC left Vs, Bellator would have been in there in lickity split.

wonder who they end up with.

It would be nice if they could get something different. I watched almost all of the past years bellators on line because the channel they had the deal with here never aired their events. Always meaningless baseball.