Shine Fights Expected To Sign Television Deal In The Coming Weeks
MMA Weekly, 17 November 2010
Shine Fights has been looking to make some major moves recently including the signing of former “Ultimate Fighter” winner Efrain Escudero to a contract. Now the upstart organization appears on the verge of signing a deal to bring their brand of MMA to cable television. Shine Fights COO Jason Chambers revealed the news to MMAWeekly.com in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “For all intensive purposes we’ve come to an agreement,” Chambers said about the new TV deal. “It’s just a matter of dotting the “I”s and crossing the “T”s.” While Chambers stopped short of naming which network would get the rights for Shine Fights, he did say it was a recognizable name that fans of MMA will be able to access with ease. “It’s definitely a network that everyone will be familiar with,” Chambers disclosed. “It’s a network that I think is the right size and the right scope for where we are.”
The deal that will see Shine Fights hit free TV will be similar to the current package the UFC runs prior to their pay-per-view offerings. “We’ll be announcing in the next few weeks who that television partner is, we have a great relationship with them now. We’re going to give them some free content, that’s one of the things I think the UFC has done exceedingly well. They’ve built their pay-per-view model off of the exposure they got off of Spike TV, and they’re able to leverage their branding,” Chambers said. “What we’re going to be able to do is put some of the amazing fights that we have that wouldn’t necessarily make sense to put on pay-per-view, but they’re still guys with 20, 30 fights, wins over huge names, exciting fighters and you’re going to be able to watch them for free.”
The ambitious promotion has started the planning stages of their first show in 2011 which will feature the debut of Escudero along with the return of Shine Fights lightweight Grand Prix winner, Drew Fickett. The plan according to Chambers is to have the Shine Fights debut with their new TV deal early next year. “We plan on doing six pay-per-views next year and all of those undercards will be able to be seen live on cable,” said Chambers. There has been no word which network is going to land Shine Fights, but with MMA becoming a viable product as shown by the UFC’s success on Spike TV as well as the WEC on Versus, it could be any number of cable stations looking to add fights to their roster.
With 1 (count'em 1!) successful event how did they make this happen?
I like an org with intense purposes
Easy, they agreed to give a network their fights for nothing. Hell they may even be paying for the spot.
jjj2121 - Easy, they agreed to give a network their fights for nothing. Hell they may even be paying for the spot.
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Are they paying for the network slot with the money they saved by not paying fighters?
sweepnchoke -No comment.jjj2121 - Easy, they agreed to give a network their fights for nothing. Hell they may even be paying for the spot.
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Are they paying for the network slot with the money they saved by not paying fighters?
I'll be interested to see if OMA remains on the broadcast. If he is, surefire sign Shine is paying for the TV slot.
jjj2121 -sweepnchoke -No comment.jjj2121 - Easy, they agreed to give a network their fights for nothing. Hell they may even be paying for the spot.
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Are they paying for the network slot with the money they saved by not paying fighters?
I'll be interested to see if OMA remains on the broadcast. If he is, surefire sign Shine is paying for the TV slot.
I dont think most networks would allow an organization to haphazardly take their airtime. In fact, i wouldnt be surprised if they have worked out an ownership deal of some sort. Whatever the case, props to another organization getting fights back on television.
hdnet
I think its ESPN.
It's not HDnet. Will be avail to 60 million homes ( I believe HDnet is in 11million, although I could be mistaken) and is not a time buy.
:)
Back to work, thanks for the support.
Is it ESPN or on their ancillary channels?
chokeyou - Is it ESPN or on their ancillary channels?
We will be making the announcement very soon. I am very excited about this partnership.
Jason Chambers -chokeyou - Is it ESPN or on their ancillary channels?
We will be making the announcement very soon. I am very excited about this partnership.
SO.... that's a yes?
Dodgeball at 8, Shine at 9 and soccer at 10.....
lol
Shine Fights - The new Jamie Levine project
Jason Chambers, are you a real life business man? :)
Congrats on the TV deal, brother.
Can't wait, congrats. Makin big moves.
The 60 million people that will have access to watching me call fights should consider themselves VERY VERY lucky!!!
Great job Chambers. Since Jason has taken over, SHiNE has done nothing but get better and better. Its a MMA.tv company now. Chambers, OMA, The Boondock Saint Sean Flannery, MMA Girls Joanne, and RAY RAY the voice of his generation Flores
Im very excited for all of you that get to see me on TV. This is a big day for you losers and all of MMA.tv 's very lucky members!!
Free OMA
(SWIDT?) 
AGAIN......
ESPN.... please confirm
or
deny