my buddy
@Dim has all the rumored info & insight since he lives there
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information is pretty scarce on the ground.. what snippets we have from various media reports over the last few months
+ Eleven (which i will call 11 going forward cos eleven is a real pain to type. always ends up as elven or something.. ) but anyway.. 11 are launching in the UK in August initially as online only channels. So Web, IOS, Android (not Roku or Amazon Fire that I can see)
+ If you visit their website they say they are in discussions with Sky, BT, Virgin etc for the channel to be carried on their platforms.
+ 11 in the UK are part owned, invested in, or partnered by IMG. Its really unclear how deap their relationship goes but its certainly financial. Been described in some media as a "minority stake" which could be anything from 1% to 40%
+ The head of 11 for the Uk and Ireland is the former head of BT TV (So no surprise going on the same model and targeting UFC early)
+ They already operate across europe and in parts of Asia and in most of these regions they carry both UFC and CageWarriors programming along with some other MMA
+ One channel will be for football (soccer) the other for varied sports including MMA. They have already stolen Serie A (Italian Football) from BT and La Liga (Spanish football) from Sky,.
+ There is talk of PPV on other platforms. What it looks like is, subscribers will be able to watch all UFC on the channels, but for non subscribers they will be able to buy single events (presumably just numbered events) from the various box office providers (Sky, BT, ITV, Virgin) - there is simply no way they will make some events ppv in addition to subs unless they are complete idiots.
Its potentially pretty crap for UK viewers, having to add ANOTHER subscription to what they already have. BT Sport has been great offering Premier League, European Football (Champions league etc) and is a must have for fans with teams in champions league or europa league. Sky could be the losers if fans who like Serie A or La Liga dont want multiple subscriptions.
I dont think being online only is a particular deal breaker nowadays. Most people have either chromecast, smart tv, fire tv, or other ways of watching internet tv on the big screen. but it will certainly cost them the casual viewer in the short term.
The WME/IMG plan though is pretty clearly unfolding.
A few months back they bought the streaming provider Neulion (who are responsible for fightpass), now invested into streaming sports channels.. Thats clearly their long term view..
And when you think how much sport broadcast rights cost, the UK premier league rights alone sold for $7bn for 3 years, NFL rights sell for huge amounts.. $4bn for exclusive access to all UFC programming is pretty much a bargain..
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other notes. In Belgium and Luxembourg they carry 40 events and 150 hours of "additional programming" so preview shows etc
Eleven Sports secures live UFC coverage
Also note that their deal for Cage Warriors was "in all markets" so have to presume that Cage Warriors will move from BT to 11
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Oh heres another one.. 11's "network partner" is none other than WME owned Neulion
Eleven Sports Network Partners With NeuLion To Launch Top-Class New Digital Service