Will ESPN Ramp Up Its MMA Coverage?

On ESPN would be sweet! I know that the production was an issue with getting a deal done with HBO but I think UFC has to compromise the production and a compromise with ESPN/ABC would be a win/win IMO. Its pretty cool that ESPN is doing all this coverage. I caught Mike and Mike in the Morning and heard them going nuts over Randys ear. It was quite funny.

bringing up the 1 million PPV buy threshold. Once they can be counted on for a handful of those every year, then you’ve got something that the mainstream can no longer choose to ignore simply for purposes of industrial leverage. ESPN will have no choice but to give significant coverage, otherwise some rival will provide that coverage and gain market share.

Right now, they are just playing for a piece of the pie. And it’s sound business, freezing out the customer in order to maximize your return on the transaction. The only problem is you can hold out for too long, and the customer can figure out how to get the product elsewhere. ESPN is certainly the largest sports news outlet in the world (well, at least in North America, which is what really matters for the purposes of this discussion), so there isn’t much danger of someone providing exactly the same product they’re capable of. But it’s still a risk.

they got somebody on staff who knew fuck all about the sport. Franklin McNeil does not fit that description.

When the UFC achieves that 1.0+ buyrate at 91, my assessment is that ESPN will be on board on a semi-regular basis. The force that such a gesture will generate cannot be understated. ESPN giving semi-regular coverage to the UFC could, in essence, help sustain that 1.0+ trend going forward and it’s very possible, looking at the potential for cards following November’s Couture/Lesnar headlining event, that the UFC could start seeing 1.0’s more often than not. Sure, it may seem unrealistic now, but sometimes I think these buyrates are solely attributed to the popularity of the talent and not enough to the popularity of the sport and the product— and that card could be the perfect storm to extend the reach of the UFC. Yes, the fighters matter, but it’s trending upwards, so when we look at buyrates from 2004 and buyrates today, some inflation should be inferred. The additional ESPN coverage helping the UFC along could go a very long way toward sustaining the product (and sport) as a long term mainstream American sports entity. They’re already providing coverage on-air for Couture and Lesnar. It’s not a stretch to imagine they’ll provide coverage leading up to it that could potentially assist the buyrate in moving up whole tenths of points (no small feat).

It may not be long before we look back on this time and say to ourselves “wow, nobody really watched MMA back then”.