Comments Thread For: ESPN, UFC Announce and Outline Huge Multi-Year Deal

[Mitchell Kane]

https://twitter.com/robnashville/sta...73193825046533
Robert Joyner@robnashville

ESPN rep says there will be cross promotion tween UFC & TopRank "I think there’s no doubt that we’ll look to pair the two. In both cases, because of the staging aspects to it, we could also use timezones to our advantage." Doubleheaders, UFC on East Coast, TR on West Coast

https://thebiglead.com/2018/05/31/a-...-acquisitions/

UFC and Top Rank are both often on Saturday night. Could there be evenings with dual promotion between the two, or will they remain distinct?

Magnus: I could easily see that. What I’m fond of saying to people is if the genie came out of the bottle and granted me one wish it would be for 104 Saturday nights per year. I think there’s no doubt that we’ll look to pair the two. In both cases, because of the staging aspects to it, we could also use timezones to our advantage. Like we did this year with Top Rank coming out of an SEC football game on a Saturday night with a big lead-in, we can do that kind of scheduling as well thanks to the fact that these things can be scheduled accordingly.

[lanker rom]

If I'm reading this whole thing right, it'd seem as if ESPN ended up with the whole deal.

12 UFC PPV events, 10 events for ESPN, 20 events for ESPN+ (I believe the prelims for the PPV are also on ESPN).

Looking at the UFC's show history over the last 4 or 5 years, about 40 shows is all they run in any given year.

Am I missing anything?

Well its important to ask of those old 40 how many were on fox or fs1 and how many were on ppv. With this new deal I believe it says about 22 will be on a ESPN network (so free cable tv) and 18 will either be ppv or on ESPN+. Which means there will be less free UFC events. The question is what is the trade off and how will this benefit and disadvantage the ufc.

In my opinion some advantages are as followed. They are on the leading sports station in the USA which means they'll catch the attention of basketball and football fans. The UFC will now have more money to put out a better product. And they will have shoulder programming that will make it easier to tell stories of their fighters. IF ESPN+ blows up it will be even better for them.

However it should be questioned how less shows will effect the ratings of UFC that already trending downward. Plus how effective will they be in creating new stars. In my mind it seems important to question if WME is trying to get their money back with this new deal or advance the sport. I believe its the latter however time will tell

[Scipio2009]

Well its important to ask of those old 40 how many were on fox or fs1 and how many were on ppv. With this new deal I believe it says about 22 will be on a ESPN network (so free cable tv) and 18 will either be ppv or on ESPN+. Which means there will be less free UFC events. The question is what is the trade off and how will this benefit and disadvantage the ufc.

In my opinion some advantages are as followed. They are on the leading sports station in the USA which means they'll catch the attention of basketball and football fans. The UFC will now have more money to put out a better product. And they will have shoulder programming that will make it easier to tell stories of their fighters. IF ESPN+ blows up it will be even better for them.

However it should be questioned how less shows will effect the ratings of UFC that already trending downward. Plus how effective will they be in creating new stars. In my mind it seems important to question if WME is trying to get their money back with this new deal or advance the sport. I believe its the latter however time will tell

They're getting their money back; let's not be confused here. Nothing seems confirmed about the PPV count being set, but at something like $6m a show, the UFC is being brought in to fill out ESPN+.

Less free shows on ESPN, but having the full events running on ESPN+, gives ESPN more opportunity to build out the highlight packages for that 30-minute UFC show on ESPN, with that and the ESPN shows incentivizing folks to get ESPN+, and all that collectively helping to rebuild PPV.

The dearth of stars is offset greatly by the ESPN+ money (each ESPN+ show basically earns the equivalent of what UFC would get for a 300k PPV buys event).

[Mitchell Kane]

https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/1006639323972820993
CNBC Now@CNBCnow
BREAKING: AT&T wins court approval to buy Time Warner - Reuters

https://twitter.com/CNET/status/1006...89536CNET@CNET
What you need to know about the AT&T's big legal win:
📡 AT&T can now buy Time Warner
💵 The deal is for $85.4B
📺 Comcast and Fox could be next...
🎥 AT&T can now bulk up on original programming

[MasterPlan]

Lookin back at this, I'm actually surprised by the low number of cards UFC will have on ESPN.

10 Shows on ESPN
20 Shows on ESPN+

Compared to the Top Rank deal.
18 Shows on ESPN
12 Shows on ESPN+

UFC put on 30+ cards a year on Fox, FS1 and FS2.

[LoadedWraps]

UFC(r), the world's premier mixed martial arts organization, and The Walt Disney Company's new Direct-To-Consumer and International segment along with ESPN, today announced the full scope of the historic multi-year agreement that makes ESPN-branded media platforms the exclusive digital and television home of the UFC in the United States, further expanding streaming rights to UFC on ESPN+ and building upon the agreement revealed earlier this month.
[Click Here To Read More]

MMA (crap) forum BIGPOPPAPUMP , you know better, smh.