Bellator 122: 582,000 viewers
MMA Payout, 29 July 2014
MMA Payout has learned from a Nielsen source that Friday night’s Bellator MMA Summer Series on Spike TV drew an average viewership of 582,000 total viewers. The peak for Bellator 122 occurred during the co-main event of Brandon Halsey defeating Brett Cooper which drew 807,000 viewers. The overnight rating is down from last Friday’s re-air of Bellator’s May PPV.
Summer Series
06/06/14 – Bellator 121: 668,000 viewers, 904,000 peak
07/25/14 – Bellator 122: 582,000 viewers, 807,000 peak
Bellator 120 replay
07/18/14 – Bellator 120 replay: 890,000 viewers, 1.334,000 peak
MMA Payout Perspective:
For those wondering, the Live+3 Day ratings for last week’s PPV re-air was 944,000 viewers with a peak at 1,418,000. Last Friday’s Bellator 122 was not remarkable and actually ended early with Spike showing a Glory fight to fill in the last 10-15 minutes of the show. If you were wondering, last year’s July Summer Series show drew 679,000 viewers although that show included Michael Chandler and Ben Askren.
How in the hell are they doing almost the same numbers to the UFC?
Solly97 - I think more people have spike than fs1. Also, fs1 is complicated. Many people will hear fs1 but just tune in to big fox.Nobody does that.
Maybe Bellator is just a fresh version of the sport.
cause bellator is awesome and with King Coker on top they will continue their campaign and spread like wildfire!
To Victory! For Bellator!
It's MMA. People are probably starting to.realize there are exciting fights outside the UFC. MMA > UFC. Why limit yourself? 
Those numbers are good enough to get bjorn fired. So something tells me bellator's numbers are not weighed equally to the UFC because they're on spike.
thatcpjguy - Those numbers are good enough to get bjorn fired. So something tells me bellator's numbers are not weighed equally to the UFC because they're on spike.I bet you Bellator doesn't come with a $90 million dollar per year price tag...
Bellator puts on good cards and great match ups for their talent level.
Good For Bellator, Keep It Going Guys !
thatcpjguy - Those numbers are good enough to get bjorn fired. So something tells me bellator's numbers are not weighed equally to the UFC because they're on spike.
I haven't been able to find the info for either channel as to what their + to each household is. For those who don't understand the ratings, they see the numbers and then think that Nielson just plain extrapolates their numbers from their percentage of the population. But they also add a certain amount of viewers per household based on both channel and program. Some shows can get as high as a +10 viewership added to their show. That's why I honestly don't pay attention to ratings, there is literally no way to tell how many people actually watched a show, unless every single tv in the country was hooked up to the Nielson system.
Solly97 - I think more people have spike than fs1. Also, fs1 is complicated. Many people will hear fs1 but just tune in to big fox.Yea cause I hear on ESPN2 but tune in to ESPN.
Come on guy!!!
sideeffect -You too!? Damn this espn2 is sneaky little bastard to find.Solly97 - I think more people have spike than fs1. Also, fs1 is complicated. Many people will hear fs1 but just tune in to big fox.Yea cause I hear on ESPN2 but tune in to ESPN.
Come on guy!!!
Captfireeyes -thatcpjguy - Those numbers are good enough to get bjorn fired. So something tells me bellator's numbers are not weighed equally to the UFC because they're on spike.<span class="User-291622" id="userPost50320309">I bet you Bellator doesn't come with a $90 million dollar per year price tag... <img alt="Phone Post 3.0" border="0" src="/images/phone/droid.png" style="vertical-align:middle;" /></span></blockquote>
It's also not been tasked with doing the heavy lifting in growing an entire network with just its second-tier cards.
There's a reason I keep advocating that the UFC try and switch a few of their actual PPVs over to Fox (big Fox): it's by far the best way to grab casual fans and expand their fanbase. It's pretty hard to expand your fanbase when you're on a network almost no one watches.
582,000 is not a good number for Spike at all, although it's in the middle of summer (less people watching TV in general), outside the regular Bellator season, with no big names on the show, so whatever, it's not awful either.
Anyway good on Bellator for carving out a solid niche. A predictable schedule, on just one channel that everyone has and is familiar with, equals faster growth.
Also good on them for kicking Bjorn to the curb and getting Scott Coker.
Chromium -Captfireeyes -thatcpjguy - Those numbers are good enough to get bjorn fired. So something tells me bellator's numbers are not weighed equally to the UFC because they're on spike.<span class="User-291622" id="userPost50320309">I bet you Bellator doesn't come with a $90 million dollar per year price tag... <img alt="Phone Post 3.0" border="0" src="/images/phone/droid.png" style="vertical-align:middle;" /></span></blockquote>
It's also not been tasked with doing the heavy lifting in growing an entire network with just its second-tier cards.
There's a reason I keep advocating that the UFC try and switch a few of their actual PPVs over to Fox (big Fox): it's by far the best way to grab casual fans and expand their fanbase. It's pretty hard to expand your fanbase when you're on a network almost no one watches.
582,000 is not a good number for Spike at all, although it's in the middle of summer (less people watching TV in general), outside the regular Bellator season, with no big names on the show, so whatever, it's not awful either.
Anyway good on Bellator for carving out a solid niche. A predictable schedule, on just one channel that everyone has and is familiar with, equals faster growth.
Also good on them for kicking Bjorn to the curb and getting Scott Coker.
There's a couple of issues with this. I'd like to see the UFC convert more PPV to Fox shows as well, but from a business standpoint, that lacks sense.
If Fox wants more UFC programming, they have to pony more $ up. If you take the 4 worst UFC's, they just about combine for 1 million PPV buys, which it practically a $25 million the UFC makes. Fox pays the UFC 90 million for 28 shows, if they want 4 more PPV quality shows, they would have to increase the UFC's deal.
I could see it happening, UFC is probably in the process of renegotiating soon with just 3 years left on the deal.
Now on the flip side, the UFC is the most watched programming on Fox Sports 1. So Fox values the,, none of there other content draws as much aside from NASCAR and College Football; events in which are seasonal.
UFC is year round.
They also need Fox Sports 1 and 2 to grow as they have the world cup in 2016. UFC is bigger for Fox than people think?
Marketing multiple fighters and tournaments instead of marketing a promoter and 1-2 stars of the moment.
I had to pay a lot extra to get FS1 and it's on channel number 408 which I would never just stumble upon. Spike is like 45, down by all the other most viewed channels. So around here, people are way more likely to stumble upon a bellator fight or a commercial for one than are ever going to watch FS1.
Chromium -Captfireeyes -thatcpjguy - Those numbers are good enough to get bjorn fired. So something tells me bellator's numbers are not weighed equally to the UFC because they're on spike.<span class="User-291622" id="userPost50320309">I bet you Bellator doesn't come with a $90 million dollar per year price tag... <img alt="Phone Post 3.0" border="0" src="/images/phone/droid.png" style="vertical-align:middle;" /></span></blockquote>
It's also not been tasked with doing the heavy lifting in growing an entire network with just its second-tier cards.
There's a reason I keep advocating that the UFC try and switch a few of their actual PPVs over to Fox (big Fox): it's by far the best way to grab casual fans and expand their fanbase. It's pretty hard to expand your fanbase when you're on a network almost no one watches.
582,000 is not a good number for Spike at all, although it's in the middle of summer (less people watching TV in general), outside the regular Bellator season, with no big names on the show, so whatever, it's not awful either.
Anyway good on Bellator for carving out a solid niche. A predictable schedule, on just one channel that everyone has and is familiar with, equals faster growth.
Also good on them for kicking Bjorn to the curb and getting Scott Coker.
TUF got under 600k a few times. They never get above 800. Its pretty close.
Either way, stoked we have options. Coker seems cool.
I'm not sure why people hate bellator. They have great shows and have some great talent...More mma companies= happier mma fans, and better competition/options for mma fighters
Where Tito and Rampage go I follow.
didn't those cards have tito and/or rampage on them?