Doem - they have a ton of leverage they counter programed the last ufc with a re-run ufc and beat them in ratings. I dont know why UFC is taking this gamble unless they have a mountain of cash to risk they had a ton of advertising on spike--spike helped feed their PPV Spike put UFC countdown 132 on at 1:30pm lol how long is it going to take for even 50% of the casual fans to adjust to a new channel and how is that going to affect upcoming payperview numbers all that so they can spend 600m on a TV channel that nobody watches?
that is a huge opportunity cost
I agree.
I think that Spike has done a pretty decent job so far of showing that--to the casual fan--MMA may equal UFC, but UFC equals Spike TV.
I mean, it's kind of amusingly ironic that Spike TV has effectively shown that the UFC can be banished to the "undercard" when they misbehave and step on toes, too.
I work in TV, and I think this was a ballsy, smart and successful move by Spike TV. Regardless of who built Spike's 18-34 male following, they proved to the UFC that they now control that population. UFC can go elsewhere, but it will take a serious effort to migrate their casual fan base to another network. Whereas, Spike TV has a decent grip on the demo.
Props to Spike for dropping a deuce on Versus/Dana. It will aid in their negotiations. You know deep down, Dana respects such an intelligent move...
Harold_Howard - Lol, counter programmed with the same program? UFC wins regardless.
not really guarantee that most people watching could not tell or did not care that the spike programming was a re-run. that is horrible news for UFC What happens if spike shows nothing all together? is the casual fan who cant tell the difference between a live event and a re-run going to go through the trouble to track down the ufc?