MMA Promotion Signs Prime Time Network TV Deal

[Mr7134]

In what could prove to be an interesting development Elite XC, an MMA promotion which is part owned by Showtime, has signed a network TV deal with CBS.

http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/headlines/default.asp?aID=22192

2/28/2008 12:18:00 PM

Two huge MMA announcements today

by Dave Meltzer

Elite XC confirmed in a press release today the story reported yesterday of signing a multi-year agreement for prime time television broadcasts on CBS.

The release listed four MMA events per year would air as two-hour prime time broadcasts on Saturday night.

While not officially announced, the debut event is expected to be in April, from New Jersey, and headlined by Kimbo Slice.

If the series is successful, a big if given the type of numbers needed for a major network, even on Saturdays, it would become the strongest competition UFC has ever had.

UFC today announced a three-year sponsorship agreement with Bud Light, the biggest corporate sponsor in the history of the promotion. The sponsorship goes into effect on 5/24, and will include both UFC and WEC events.

 

[GB-Hack]

Should come as no surprise since both CBS and Showtime are owned by Viacom.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

So... a nipple can't be shown on CBS, but this crapola can?

 

[Pastor]

So... a nipple can't be shown on CBS, but this crapola can?

We abhor sex yet love violence. Blame the Puritanical portion...

 

[Mr7134]

An excellent piece on the deal...

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AlSmid3hOgdebJNRAaE2zN49Eo14?slug=dm-elitecbs022808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Eltie XC deal could change MMA

By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports

The entire landscape of mixed martial arts changed today. Maybe.

The announcement that CBS will broadcast live Elite XC shows on Saturday nights in prime time is potentially the biggest deal in the history of the sport in North America.

But no matter what is said about a multi-year commitment and four shows per year, when it comes to television, like everything, it will live and die by the ratings.

“The sport of MMA airing on CBS is the single biggest thing to happen to the sport,” saidElite XC promoter Gary Shaw. That sounds like a promoter over hyping his latest announcement, but if the show is successful, that’s exactly what it will be.

But it’s going to take a huge promotional effort by the network and the company to build the event and make it fly.

Even the most-watched Ultimate Fighting Championship event in history, the Sept. 8 show headlined by Quinton Jackson vs. Dan Henderson in a UFC-Pride light heavyweight championship unification match, drew 4.7 million viewers. While those are great numbers for cable television, they don’t come close to what would be a desirable audience number for CBS, even on a Saturday night.

Within the Male 18-34 age group, the big show UFC numbers would be successful on a network level, but MMA at this point has proven to have a narrow reach. It doesn’t do well with older people. It doesn’t do badly with women within the 18-34 group, but for network prime time success, you need to draw strongly in more than one age group.

Boxing’s much-lauded “Contender” series failed on the network level. World Wrestling Entertainment programming, far more popular on cable television than MMA, was successful on NBC in the 80s, but drew poor numbers the past two years in a similar prime time slot with the revival of Saturday Night’s Main Event.

The first Elite XC show, which is tentatively scheduled for April 26th and likely headlined by Kimbo Slice, will either be the most watched MMA event ever in the United States, or it will be a failure. One could make a strong argument that above and beyond UFC’s first live television special in 2005, where Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar became instant stars by having almost the perfect match at the perfect moment for the sport, this is the most important night, going forward, in the sport’s U.S. history.

If the shows get poor ratings, the entire sport will be stigmatized with the idea that it has its cult popularity and is simply cable TV fare. It will be a huge negative perception blow for a sport which, with its phenomenal growth over the past few years, has been written up as the next NASCAR. Conversely, successful numbers, particularly if they maintain, will entrench MMA as a major sport in this country.

“Mixed martial arts is one of the fastest growing sports in the country and a wildly popular entertainment vehicle for upscale, young adult audiences,” said Kelly Kahl, Senior Executive Vice President of CBS Primetime. “It’s original programming for Saturday night; it’s live, creating an event-atmosphere; and it’s something that hasn’t been seen on network television, until now.”

It’s not a surprise that CBS made a deal for MMA. Both CBS and NBC negotiated for MMA programming for months. CBS’ interest in UFC predated the writers’ strike, while NBC’s interest picked up with the idea of looking for new live programming during the strike. That CBS went with Elite XC over the established UFC is a surprise, and is believed to have happened because Dana White wouldn’t compromise on giving the network control of the broadcast.

White noted earlier this week, before the deal was announced, that he wasn’t going to sign a bad deal for the company, even with a network station. The control issue also likely cost UFC a deal with HBO last year. UFC’s strategy of playing hardball and trying to get the deal on its terms simply wasn’t going to work with a network, but the gamble was that a big player wouldn’t take the chance with an organization that has nowhere near the name recognition and level of mainstream stars.

Because Showtime, part owner of Elite XC, is part of the Viacom family, which owns CBS, they fell into a deal that as a fledgling group, gives them a level of exposure they couldn’t afford to turn down.

“I don’t know why they didn’t get it,” said Gary Shaw, promoter of Elite XC. “If I had to guess, I’d say that it was Dana White. I don’t know that. I don’t worry about the UFC. If the prom queen wants to go out with me, I don’t ask why she isn’t dating the quarterback. I just show up at 8 p.m. at her door. I’ve said all along I think the UFC is great.

“I like the Fertittas and Marc Ratner (UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs) is like a brother to me. But the problem is no fighter can be bigger than Dana White or the UFC. For us, the fighters will always be the biggest stars.”

Shaw’s most successful MMA event was the Feb. 16 show in Miami, which drew a 1.9 rating on Showtime. It was the highest rating for a non-UFC MMA event in history, largely due to the unique Kimbo Slice vs. Tank Abbott main event. But that’s only 522,000 viewers, and they’ll need ten times that audience number, if not more, to do competitive numbers on CBS.

The show also sold out the 6,187-seat BankUnited Center in Miami, which benefited from Slice being a hometown star. For CBS events, Shaw said they are looking at running 15,000-seat arenas with the new Prudential Center in Newark being among the venues under consideration for the debut show.

Most of the details of the deal have not been made official. CBS will be paying Elite XC a fee per show. They haven’t agreed to a time slot, although with affiliate news commitments, it would have to be either 8-10 p.m. or 9-11 p.m. The broadcast team hasn’t been agreed to, but both sides will have input into the decision. Shaw said that once the date and the venue are finalized, they would begin finalizing the matches.

Shaw said he expected the shows to be similar to the Elite XC events on Showtime.

“It’s the same type of show,” he said. “I think we do a very good production with competitive fights.”

Another key is that, with so many people watching the first show and presumably so much hype, that if someone makes a good showing, they can become an instant star, similar, to what happened to Griffin stemming from the first Ultimate Fighter finals. The impact of a great match will be multiplied tenfold.

An unknown fighter who does a sensational finish will almost instantly become one of the best known fighters in the country. A genuine match of the year could end up being the most talked about fight in history. Similarly, the affects of a poor show will be magnified like never before.

But it also adds to an over-saturation problem. UFC is producing roughly two shows per month. Elite is now adding four CBS dates to the 16 or so Showtime dates they had planned for this year. That’s a lot of events in a sport with a finite number of stars, and in which the stars can only fight a few times per year.

Even with the deal giving his company the largest television exposure in a business where television exposure is the life blood, Shaw doesn’t feel Elite XC is on the verge of leapfrogging UFC as the top promotion.

“No, I’m a realist,” he said. “UFC is No. 1. I am Pepsi to their Coke, Avis to their Hertz.”

 

[Mr7134]

So... a nipple can't be shown on CBS, but this crapola can?

While there’s certainly a contradiction between the attitude network TV exhibits towards sex and violence I don’t necessarily see how it relates to an MMA company getting a network television deal.

While many people may not like mixed martial arts, as is there preference, I’ve never heard anyone offer any real credible arguments as to why it shouldn’t be considered a sport. Most of the arguments seem to boil down to, “It’s not a sport because I don’t like it.”

If Golden Boy promotions signed a deal with CBS to televise De La Hoya’s retirement tour I don’t think anyone would be making points like the one above. If they would be then that is fair enough. People who see boxing as nothing more that legalised barbarism are quite entitled to say the same about MMA. Really they are.

The problem I find is when people try to present the argument that boxing is some how acceptable and a sport whereas MMA is like the coliseum come again. The cage, which is pretty much where MMA fights in the west take place, has connotations of savagery etc. I understand that.

The fact is though MMA is a safe sport. Well, it’s as safe as any combat sport that utilises striking is going to be. A while back John Hopkins University did a study based on six years worth of data provided by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. They found that MMA has roughly half the rate of brain injuries that boxing and kickboxing do. MMA has more joint injuries than those sports, but even joint injuries are less per capita than in the NFL.

Gary Shaw is, probably, going to promote Kimbo Slice as one of his top stars. Kimbo has charisma and can knockout out bad heavyweights. We shouldn’t forget that that he is nowhere close to a top heavyweight and is a completely unproven MMA commodity. I thought I’d mention this as a preface to my next point…

MMA fighters are not just a bunch of white trash or thug-life bar room brawlers. For instance the UFC have a show on Saturday. Anderson Silva versus Dan Henderson for the unified middleweight title headlines.

Anderson Silva is one of the best p4p MMA fighters in the world. He has no credentials that anyone who likes to dismiss MMA would really rate though. His credentials exist within the context of MMA. He’s a great Muay-Thai striker with a BJJ black belt. Those facts wouldn’t mean anything to those who have already dismissed the sport.

Dan Henderson, on the other hand, has gone to the Olympics, twice. That is something that might validate the argument that top MMA fighters are real athletes. That is to say, for those who require outside validation.

http://www.wrestlinghalloffame.org/champions/?names&wrestler=1648

Hidehiko Yoshida who was one of Pride’s top stars is an Olympic gold medallist in Judo.

Matt Lindland, arguably the best middleweight active in MMA and a man who certainly deserves to be mentioned along side Silva and Henderson, is an Olympic silver medallist.

http://www.wrestlinghalloffame.org/champions/?names&wrestler=1906

And so on…

I mention the Olympians in particular because if I were to try to validate the athletic credentials of MMA fighters by saying something like BJ Penn became the first ever non-native to win the black belt division of the Mundial (Brazilian ju-jitsu) World Championships I would be met with blank stares by some. BJJ is like karate, right?

Fedor Emelianenko might be the perennial world combat Sambo champion. Sambo is some Russian thing, right? If I haven't heard of it then it can't really be a sport.

The point I’m making is that disliking MMA is fine. Dismissing the sport out of hand is another. Trying to base some argument about the relationship between attitudes to sex and violence because an MMA promotion got a network deal seems to be taking it too far. Seeing correlations that don’t exist, so to speak.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

7134 don't get your gi in a wad.

Simon made a legit observation that a flash of a nipple during the Super Bowl halftime sent the nation into a moral hissy fit, while a sport that revels in bloody violence won't.

And the fans of MMA better be ready, because after the first gnp results in pints of blood soaking the ring, there will be outrage over this sport. And the first time an already unconscious fighter is hit because the ref doesn't get there fast enough, there will be avalanche of columns denouncing the sport.

 

[Bruce_Shoebottom]

Yup, you're right Inky. The same know-nothing clowns who tried to claim MMA was a fad that would just shrivel up and go away a couple years ago will come back with the same tired anti-MMA bull**** next time they're staring at deadline and don't have a column idea.

 

[Bubbler]

Waaah Bruce. Anyone notice the demographic on this ****? It's fighting for white people by white people. Fight Club wannabee's who don't want to watch boxing because, you know, there aren't any tattooed white boys in it.

And it's boring as **** fighting at that. High school wrestling with 'tude! Extreme!

And can someone explain the "martial arts" aspect. I don't recall any MMA-style throwdowns in Game Of Death. Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabar both weep.

 

[homeslice77]

Waaah Bruce. Anyone notice the demographic on this ****? It's fighting for white people by white people. Fight Club wannabee's who don't want to watch boxing because, you know, there aren't any tattooed white boys in it.

And it's boring as **** fighting at that. High school wrestling with 'tude! Extreme!

And can someone explain the "martial arts" aspect. I don't recall any MMA-style throwdowns in Game Of Death. Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabar both weep.

They may not be tattooed, but there are plenty of "white boys" in boxing today. Maybe you missed Kelly Pavlik defeat Jermain Taylor twice, Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Mikkell Kessler, and a complete white dominance of the heavyweight division right now.. there are other popular white fighters now such as Irish John Duddy and Junior Welterweight champ Paul Malignaggi.

I think Bruce did a fine job of debunking your idea that whites dominate UFC too, so you trying to make this into some sort of race issue is laughable.

 

[Tripp McNeely]

Waaah Bruce. Anyone notice the demographic on this ****? It's fighting for white people by white people. Fight Club wannabee's who don't want to watch boxing because, you know, there aren't any tattooed white boys in it.

And it's boring as **** fighting at that. High school wrestling with 'tude! Extreme!

And can someone explain the "martial arts" aspect. I don't recall any MMA-style throwdowns in Game Of Death. Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabar both weep.

You might've made a better point just shutting up.
If you don't know anything about the sport, it's best not to try to make points about it because it shows off your ignorance.

 

[93Devil]

Has anyone bought boxing a tombstone yet?

R.I.P.

And until MMA and UFC and whatever other offshoots there are can consolidate like baseball (majors, AAA, AA, A) or the Primireship League, then it will never reach its full potential, IMHO. I want one champion. One. Not a MMA, mixed martial, UFC and all that other crap.

This is a big step forward, though.

 

[Dangerous_K]

Has anyone bought boxing a tombstone yet?

R.I.P.

And until MMA and UFC and whatever other offshoots there are can consolidate like baseball (majors, AAA, AA, A) or the Primireship League, then it will never reach its full potential, IMHO. I want one champion. One. Not a MMA, mixed martial, UFC and all that other crap.

This is a big step forward, though.

Did you mean to use blue font for that boxing headstone comment? UFC has never had a pay-per-view anywhere close to the buyrates of De La Hoya vs. Mayweather during a supposed dark era for the sport.

 

[93Devil]

Has anyone bought boxing a tombstone yet?

R.I.P.

And until MMA and UFC and whatever other offshoots there are can consolidate like baseball (majors, AAA, AA, A) or the Primireship League, then it will never reach its full potential, IMHO. I want one champion. One. Not a MMA, mixed martial, UFC and all that other crap.

This is a big step forward, though.

Did you mean to use blue font for that boxing headstone comment? UFC has never had a pay-per-view anywhere close to the buyrates of De La Hoya vs. Mayweather during a supposed dark era for the sport.

Nope.

In five years it will be deader than glam rock.

Walk into your news room or news side and take a poll about how many current boxers they know. Ask men and women who are sports fans and non-sports fan.

I doubt you will find someone who can name five active fighters and no more than two current champions.

 

[Bubbler]

Waaah Bruce. Anyone notice the demographic on this ****? It's fighting for white people by white people. Fight Club wannabee's who don't want to watch boxing because, you know, there aren't any tattooed white boys in it.

And it's boring as **** fighting at that. High school wrestling with 'tude! Extreme!

And can someone explain the "martial arts" aspect. I don't recall any MMA-style throwdowns in Game Of Death. Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabar both weep.

You might've made a better point just shutting up.
If you don't know anything about the sport, it's best not to try to make points about it because it shows off your ignorance.

Really?

• Almost everytime I've watched it, it's two white dudes going at it
• Everytime I saw it on at a bar or restaurant, it's predominantly white people watching it.
• Damn near every network it's televised on caters to young white men

But don't take my word for it. Here's boxing promotor Bob Arum ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?id=3204784

“Boxing was impacted by MMA in one group and one group alone — the young, male, Caucasian demographic,” said Bob Arum, chairman of Top Rank. “They tended to go away from boxing and to mixed martial arts.”

That was largely because, Arum said, the young white males looked at most of the UFC fighters and saw themselves.

No matter what colors the fighters are, this issue doesn't answer another: why MMA is so damn boring. I don't like MMA's violence, but I disapprove of its snooze factor even more.

Like I said, it's high school wrestling with 'tude ... and punching ... and blood.

 

[GB-Hack]

Has anyone bought boxing a tombstone yet?

R.I.P.

And until MMA and UFC and whatever other offshoots there are can consolidate like baseball (majors, AAA, AA, A) or the Primireship League, then it will never reach its full potential, IMHO. I want one champion. One. Not a MMA, mixed martial, UFC and all that other crap.

This is a big step forward, though.

Did you mean to use blue font for that boxing headstone comment? UFC has never had a pay-per-view anywhere close to the buyrates of De La Hoya vs. Mayweather during a supposed dark era for the sport.

Nope.

In five years it will be deader than glam rock.

Walk into your news room or news side and take a poll about how many current boxers they know. Ask men and women who are sports fans and non-sports fan.

I doubt you will find someone who can name five active fighters and no more than two current champions.

I would ask whether they can do the same for MMA fighters. I would say Floyd Mayweather currently has a far higher profile than any MMA fighter.

 

[Dangerous_K]

De La Hoya - Mayweather: 1.5 million buys

600K more than the highest grossing UFC of all time, which was that same month's Lidell vs. Jackson show. Mayweather - Hatton drew about equal to that Lidell - Jackson card, and had about 250K more buys than UFC's average.

The numbers don't lie, boxing is still more relevant than MMA.

 

[93Devil]

I just asked a coworker whose son pitched with Verlander, travels to watch Virginia Tech sports and roots for VCU. He also won a fantasy football league I was in this year. So he is a sports fan.

I asked him to name a current boxer. He could not. He said he will watch it with his son every now and then when flipping channels, but he could name anyone.

He could not believe he did not know who the heavyweight champion is right now.

 

[93Devil]

Has anyone bought boxing a tombstone yet?

R.I.P.

And until MMA and UFC and whatever other offshoots there are can consolidate like baseball (majors, AAA, AA, A) or the Primireship League, then it will never reach its full potential, IMHO. I want one champion. One. Not a MMA, mixed martial, UFC and all that other crap.

This is a big step forward, though.

Did you mean to use blue font for that boxing headstone comment? UFC has never had a pay-per-view anywhere close to the buyrates of De La Hoya vs. Mayweather during a supposed dark era for the sport.

Nope.

In five years it will be deader than glam rock.

Walk into your news room or news side and take a poll about how many current boxers they know. Ask men and women who are sports fans and non-sports fan.

I doubt you will find someone who can name five active fighters and no more than two current champions.

I would ask whether they can do the same for MMA fighters. I would say Floyd Mayweather currently has a far higher profile than any MMA fighter.

Now he does.

But will a boxer have a higher profile than a MMA fighter in five years after this CBS deal?

 

[spnited]

OK, Devil, ask him if he even knows what MMA and UFC mean... forget asking if knows any MMA fighters...no chance.