A Glance at Bellator's New Television Deal

The basics are as such:

Bellator Fighting Championships on Tuesday announced an agreement to televise its second and third seasons live on Fox Sports Net. The deal, which covers 24 weeks in 2010, will bring the tournament-based mixed martial arts promotion to 82 million homes on FSN.

"We’re thrilled to bring Bellator’s brand of MMA to our viewers," FSN Vice President of Programming David Sussin said in a release. "We believe the quality of the events and the passion of these fighters will resonate with our audience."

Under a new multi-tiered alliance, Bellator shows will be carried live in primetime by FSN and its regional affiliates, beginning on April 8. Highlights from each event will then be condensed into a 30-minute program, set to air the following Saturday on NBC. In addition, a one-hour highlight show will be carried in Spanish by Telemundo on Saturdays.
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Bellator Season 2 premieres April 8 and runs for 12 successive weeks. Season 3 kicks off Aug. 12 and also covers for 12 consecutive weeks. Each season will adhere to Bellator’s tournament format, under which fighters in each of the promotion’s weight classes determine their own fate to become champion or No. 1 contender.

If you're a Bellator employee, this is cause for celebration. But I still must cast a skeptical glance towards this deal on the following counts:

1. To Bellator's credit, this is a live fight deal with FSN, which is something neither the UFC nor the IFL ever had. But they're eventually going to be preempted in markets large and small by more traditional sports in what could be very pivotal weekends. As someone who is accustomed to having his radio show preempted for local college football, it makes gaining any traction with your audience or developing a brand maddeningly difficult if not outright impossible. How this will play itself out remains to be seen, but it's something to consider at the outset.

2. With that preemption comes the idea of establishing brand and identity. Even if Bellator can gather enough viewers to move the ratings needle, will "Bellator" be able to build sufficient momentum to burn their product into the consciousness of viewers?

3. The timing of the deal isn't bad, but in terms of competing with traditional sports for airtime MMA's bread and butter is summer. Period. Program directors and producers across the country are hunting for live, local sports content to place in those dead months and while this deal gets some of the summer, July and early August are almost entirely excluded. I would have rather seen the timing of the seasons cover the summer months entirely.

4. Much with the NBC Strikeforce deal, airing late at night will neither make or break the organization, but I am curious to see how the product circling back affects Bellator's ability to build intrigue with larger players.

Again, I don't air these concerns in a similar vein to those I shared during the IFL's incompetent stumbling towards irrelevance. Bellator is operated by those who clearly observed the failings of MMA organizational development and understand that key elements to brand building - viral marketing, fiscal responsibility, value-add matchmaking (e.g. tournies) and much more - are required for livelihood. But we mustn't lather ourselves up over a television deal that may prevent the level of consistency and exposure that a burgeoning company demands to misinform our judgment.

All that said, I'll be watching.