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The preliminary number I've heard is that the show did roughly 60,000 buys or so, and that's from a reliable source. This is about what the average UFC show does with a respectable headline fight.
If UFC 46 did 75,000 buys, I would consider it a major success, because the second most buys UFC has gotten on pay per view under Zuffa is 80,000 for UFC 44. The first show in Vegas (with Ortiz-Matyushenko as a headliner after Vitor pulled out) did about 75,000 buys with a ton of advertising. It was also the first show back on cable for UFC. The record for UFC buys under Zuffa is 150,000 for UFC 40. And yes, UFC 40 is tops under Zuffa with 150,000, whereas second place is UFC 44 with 80,000 with only half the amount of buys UFC 40 did. That shows beyond the one show how poorly Zuffa has done with their pay per view franchise.
The all-time record for UFC buys is over 260,000 buys for both UFC 5 (1.05 buyrate) and UFC 6 (1.1). The first Ultimate Ultimate was also in the 250,000 buys range with a 1.0 buyrate.
The thing is, you can't have a pay per view product without free TV to hype/advertise it. They do need the free TV. Here's the major problem with free TV though; Zuffa has done a terrible job at hyping their pay per view shows (for the most part), who says they would do any better on free television? They have no clue how to build superstars, and they have absolutely no clue what draws money on pay per view. Without understanding that, they're not going to be able to book their TV shows to hype the PPV events properly, and in the long run a TV deal could kill the company. But they have to try it because otherwise they're dead meat.
ive paid for every UFC even ones that i went to live buttttttt UFC has no clue how to promote or be creative thus is totally rinkydink
also reported in last weeks wrestling observer!
Free TV is essential.
This is the same lack of exposure that is killing the Chicago Blackhawks NHL franchise. It was out drawn by the minor league Wolves last night. The difference?
Free TV exposure for the Wolves - none for the Blackhawks.
I'm doing an article on all of the business figures of UFC under Zuffa in my April issue of Touch of Evil Newsletter - www.touchofevil.us
"I dont care if the UFC goes bankrupt."
Whether you like either promotion or not, to not care about UFC going bankrupt is to not care about MMA.
I would never hope that on any MMA org'.
"I don't care if the UFC goes bankrupt"
I'd be willing to bet that UFC and PRIDE have brought more MMA fans in and then led those newbies into the realization of all the smaller organizations. Not the reverse.
LOL. It took shootfightermike about 10 days to list a source. Whats the urls for the online cable sites you mentioned?
I've paid for the last 2 (I had buyers remorse both
times).
I was asked just this week by someone, why they can't
find any UFC's at any of the video stores, and if they
do have any they are old ones. I don't know how it
works with video retailers, but I think better
distribution might help.
Punchdrunk...& JeremyB...,
You are both incorrect. Free TV is not essential. Before the cable ban, UFC was doing better than most boxing ppvs and wwf ppvs. There was no free tv show back then, so how is free tv essential?
SEG was only successful with UFC in the mid '90s because UFC was a unique concept at that time. It had never been done before in North America, and people really wanted to see what would happen if you put guys from different styles of martial arts in a fight against each other. It answered an ages old question. It's no longer a unique concept and that ages old question was answered nearly ten years ago now, so Zuffa has to get on free TV to survive. Success on pay per view will never happen again without free TV to hype it.
ttt i will buy on 4/2