Bellator heavyweight grand prix semifinals ratings down from quarterfinal bouts

[FrankieNYC]

Bellator heavyweight grand prix semifinals ratings down from quarterfinal bouts

Bellator’s strategy to run its heavyweight tournament semifinals on two nights over the same weekend yielded somewhat mixed ratings results.


The Friday night Bellator 207 semifinal, featuring Ryan Bader’s win over Matt Mitrione from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., did 416,000 viewers on Paramount Network. The number, while very low by pre-2018 standards, was the best rating the company has done in nearly four months.


The last Bellator television show on Paramount to beat that mark was the June 29 event headlined by Ilima-lei MacFarlane’s win over Alejandra Lara, which did 466,000 viewers.


By comparison, Bader’s opening-round tournament fight with Muhammed Lawal averaged 453,000 viewers on Paramount and 152,000 for a simulcast on CMT. Mitrione’s first-round win over Roy Nelson averaged 476,000 viewers on Paramount.


All of those numbers were topped on Saturday for Fedor Emelianenko’s semifinal win over Chael Sonnen at Bellator 208, which did 521,000 viewers. That was the best Bellator number since the April 28 show where Emelianenko beat Frank Mir, which drew 581,000 viewers on Paramount and another 169,000 viewers on CMT for a simulcast.

Sonnen’s quarterfinal win over Quinton Jackson did 770,000 viewers on Paramount and 161,000 on CMT on a show that went head-to-head with a UFC pay-per-view.


Saturday was a hugely competitive night in sports, with college football, baseball playoffs, and the Terrence Crawford vs. Jose Benavidez boxing match on ESPN.


The latter may have hurt Bellator the most. The Crawford vs. Benavidez card averaged 2,245,000 viewers and peaked at 2,708,000 viewers for the main event. It was the most-watched boxing show on cable television since the July 2, 2017, fight with Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn.


There was also college football on ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2, and FOX Sports 1, with ABC’s coverage of Wisconsin vs. Michigan doing 6,038,000 viewers. The Boston Red Sox vs. Houston Astros baseball playoff game on TBS did 5,821,000 viewers.


Bellator’s 2018 season average on Paramount is now at 448,000 viewers. Its most recent major show, on Sept. 29, headlined by Rory MacDonald vs. Gegard Mousasi and Rampage Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva, was a DAZN exclusive. Bellator’s overall television ratings have declined 34 percent since 2017 levels.


In recent months, Bellator’s audience has become a higher percentage of DVR viewership than before, which would be expected to the case most notably with the Saturday show and all the competition. DVR viewership of the two nights is unavailable at press time.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Anybody ripping the DAZN deal needs to realize what a great deal it was for Bellator

 

[Enock-O-Lypse Now!]

I like the idea of having Fights Friday night but most fans have been conditioned to watch fights on Saturday Nights ..so many may not have been aware of the Friday Fights.

Either way with so many different options to view Fights these days it could almost be argued T.V Ratings isn’t the big indicator like it has been in the past to judge an events success/failure.

 

[Enock-O-Lypse Now!]

Anybody ripping the DAZN deal needs to realize what a great deal it was for Bellator

It’s a great deal - just going to take some time for viewers to jump aboard.

(We have to remember the UFC took their fans on a joy ride across various channels / platforms - Spike,Facebook,Fox,FS1, FS2, YouTube, PPV to name a few and now ESPN / all that shuffling easily lost many viewers who said F it after trying to play where’s Waldo for to long.)

As long as Bellator takes it slow and steady and not try to sprint it out they should be successful.

 

[FrankieNYC]

It’s a great deal - just going to take some time for viewers to jump aboard.

As long as they take it slow and steady and not try to sprint it out they should be successful.

Financially it is/was pretty much a life saver.
DAZN seems to be in it for the long run which is excellent.
Bellator seems to be smartly focusing outside of US too.

The simulcasting to CMT stopped when DAZN got involved, so that move seems off now.
But I wonder what they will do now regarding the 34% loss in a year.

It is a weird dynamic that differs from UFC.
The owners are content distributors themselves.
Do they shop Bellator to FS1 (just as an example) & get guaranteed money on a station they fit on?

MMA is in a weird position these days

 

[Enock-O-Lypse Now!]

Financially it is/was pretty much a life saver.
DAZN seems to be in it for the long run which is excellent.
Bellator seems to be smartly focusing outside of US too.

The simulcasting to CMT stopped when DAZN got involved, so that move seems off now.
But I wonder what they will do now regarding the 34% loss in a year.

It is a weird dynamic that differs from UFC.
The owners are content distributors themselves.
Do they shop Bellator to FS1 (just as an example) & get guaranteed money on a station they fit on?

MMA is in a weird position these days

Viacom still owns Bellator right?

Are they distancing themselves from MMA?

Viacom owns Mtv,CMT,VH1,BET - Spike...

Strange move by Viacom ...no??

 

[FrankieNYC]

I like the idea of having Fights Friday night but most fans have been conditioned to watch fights on Saturday Nights ..so many may not have been aware of the Friday Fights.

Either way with so many different options to view Fights these days it could almost be argued T.V Ratings isn’t the big indicator like it has been in the past to judge an events success/failure.

It still is.
Meltzer reports on UFC streaming numbers & they are never even near 10% of TV (when on both)

 

[sparkuri]

There was also PFL, natural disasters etc.
TV & the world is changing.
It's far more convenient to work your hobbies around your work.
These numbers and others slowly are telling more about traditional television habits than say, Bellator.

And, DAZN numbers aren't in, which is more geared toward the future of entertainment.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Viacom still owns Bellator right?

Are they distancing themselves from MMA?

Viacom owns Mtv,CMT,VH1,BET - Spike...

Strange move by Viacom ...no??

Yes they do
Viacom seems to be doing a lot of longterm thinking (finally) with Bellator.
So they are either in it longterm or they are strengthening the brand to sell it

 

[FrankieNYC]

https://www.mmafighting.com/2018/10...nt-averages-802000-viewers-with-dvr-additions

Saturday night’s Fedor Emelianenko vs. Chael Sonnen Bellator heavyweight tournament fight averaged 802,000 viewers for the course of the fight, peaking with 1,090,000 when including DVR viewership through Tuesday night.


Overall, Bellator 208 from the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., averaged 521,000 viewers live and picked up another 83,000 viewers over the next three days via DVR viewership. DVR viewership of 16 percent is not unusually high for Bellator. It was thought DVR viewership would be above normal levels based on the heavy sports competition, with college football, major league baseball playoffs and the Terrence Crawford vs. Jose Benavidez boxing match on ESPN which was the most-viewed boxing broadcast on cable this year.


The Friday night show from the Mohegan Sun Casino, which featured Ryan Bader’s semifinal win over Matt Mitrione and a Sergei Kharitonov win over Roy Nelson in a non-tournament heavyweight fight averaged 493,000 viewers, including DVR viewership over the next few days. The positive is that it was Bellator’s highest-rated Friday night broadcast in the 18-49 demo since Bellator 176, a taped show from the U.K. on May 19, 2017, which was headlined by Rory MacDonald vs. Paul Daley from London.


That number was broken down a 416,000 viewers the night of the show and another 77,000 watching via DVR over the next three days, an 18.5 percent increase.


The Bader vs. Mitrione fight averaged 620,000 viewers including DVR viewership, peaking at 798,000.


The viewership numbers only include television viewership on Paramount, as DAZN does not report streaming numbers.

Bellator officials noted that 3.9 million people watched at least one minute of company television programming between the two shows on Paramount.


-

So Fedor & Chael did decent numbers.
seems like the rest of the card didn't have a lot of viewers so the average was low.

 

[Muridae83]

Bellator heavyweight grand prix semifinals ratings down from quarterfinal bouts

Bellator’s strategy to run its heavyweight tournament semifinals on two nights over the same weekend yielded somewhat mixed ratings results.


The Friday night Bellator 207 semifinal, featuring Ryan Bader’s win over Matt Mitrione from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., did 416,000 viewers on Paramount Network. The number, while very low by pre-2018 standards, was the best rating the company has done in nearly four months.


The last Bellator television show on Paramount to beat that mark was the June 29 event headlined by Ilima-lei MacFarlane’s win over Alejandra Lara, which did 466,000 viewers.


By comparison, Bader’s opening-round tournament fight with Muhammed Lawal averaged 453,000 viewers on Paramount and 152,000 for a simulcast on CMT. Mitrione’s first-round win over Roy Nelson averaged 476,000 viewers on Paramount.


All of those numbers were topped on Saturday for Fedor Emelianenko’s semifinal win over Chael Sonnen at Bellator 208, which did 521,000 viewers. That was the best Bellator number since the April 28 show where Emelianenko beat Frank Mir, which drew 581,000 viewers on Paramount and another 169,000 viewers on CMT for a simulcast.

Sonnen’s quarterfinal win over Quinton Jackson did 770,000 viewers on Paramount and 161,000 on CMT on a show that went head-to-head with a UFC pay-per-view.


Saturday was a hugely competitive night in sports, with college football, baseball playoffs, and the Terrence Crawford vs. Jose Benavidez boxing match on ESPN.


The latter may have hurt Bellator the most. The Crawford vs. Benavidez card averaged 2,245,000 viewers and peaked at 2,708,000 viewers for the main event. It was the most-watched boxing show on cable television since the July 2, 2017, fight with Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn.


There was also college football on ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2, and FOX Sports 1, with ABC’s coverage of Wisconsin vs. Michigan doing 6,038,000 viewers. The Boston Red Sox vs. Houston Astros baseball playoff game on TBS did 5,821,000 viewers.


Bellator’s 2018 season average on Paramount is now at 448,000 viewers. Its most recent major show, on Sept. 29, headlined by Rory MacDonald vs. Gegard Mousasi and Rampage Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva, was a DAZN exclusive. Bellator’s overall television ratings have declined 34 percent since 2017 levels.


In recent months, Bellator’s audience has become a higher percentage of DVR viewership than before, which would be expected to the case most notably with the Saturday show and all the competition. DVR viewership of the two nights is unavailable at press time.

Well considering its 2 cards 2 nights in a row i dont think it was bad numbers for Bellator. MMA views and interest has been declining so i would actually call that decent numbers.