Meltzer: additional info on the ESPN/UFC deal & NBC & CBS put in bids against Fox

[FrankieNYC]

I was just reading this posted on the UG by mmalogic. Does it sound about right?

spn is paying an average of 150m/yr for up to 15 fight nights, 1 season Of the contender series, non exclusive library rights and shoulder programming.

that places the value of the remaining inventory at around 240m/yr (24 fight nights, etc...) plus whatever they can get for the ppv prelims (which they’ll likely shop at the end once everything else is sold and they boil down the number of ppv’s)

fox and nbc have bid on the remaining package and meltzer is the first to report that cbs has now bid on it as well.

you could also push the value of the remaining package up to 300m/yr by removing 6 ppv’s from the schedule and turning them into fight nights (30 fn’s)

The conundrum wme now has is do you accept the best bid while turning away up to 400m from the other 2 (turner can also be in the mix in June)?

or do you expand the package even further, decrease ppv’s even more and try to get an even bigger total sum?

obviously they are going to try the latter

ufc can stage a contender series every week which would give you over 5 seasons you can sell.

the espn deal set a very healthy market price for ufc content making most ppv revenue obsololete for most events.

you can maybe stage 3 or 4 ppv events that would monetize better than the tv deals. Max 6.

Beware of MMALogic
He steals a lot of stuff without credit
he also broke the news 6 weeks ago that NBC signed UFC and they were doing split rosters with ESPN .
Obviously all three were wrong.

In 2016, WME said the plan was to reduce PPV in 2019
I'd expect 6-8 for 2019

Re: fox
They made an offer for $225m for UFC rights with a $250m offer for additional cards
With ESPN getting 15, Fox might get less cards for the $200-225m range

NBC wanted OTT included and that was a sticking point (for them)
CBS bid was last minute and no idea how serious it is.

Fox is still the front-runner though
Also WWE was just a major focus for NBC's upfronts on Monday. That would not happen if WWE was leaving for fox (they were the only two serious bidders) so that leads credibility to UFC/Fox coming to terms

But the Fox upfronts did not focus on UFC, so there is that as well.

 

[SongExotic2]

Beware of MMALogic
He steals a lot of stuff without credit
he also broke the news 6 weeks ago that NBC signed UFC and they were doing split rosters with ESPN .
Obviously all three were wrong.

In 2016, WME said the plan was to reduce PPV in 2019
I'd expect 6-8 for 2019

Re: fox
They made an offer for $225m for UFC rights with a $250m offer for additional cards
With ESPN getting 15, Fox might get less cards for the $200-225m range

NBC wanted OTT included and that was a sticking point (for them)
CBS bid was last minute and no idea how serious it is.

Fox is still the front-runner though
Also WWE was just a major focus for NBC's upfronts on Monday. That would not happen if WWE was leaving for fox (they were the only two serious bidders) so that leads credibility to UFC/Fox coming to terms

But the Fox upfronts did not focus on UFC, so there is that as well.

Thanks. I'll use this info wisely

 

[FrankieNYC]

Thanks. I'll use this info wisely

I want to say that he is knowledgeable on business & media for sure.
But his one scoop that was not stolen, was 0-3

 

[SongExotic2]

I want to say that he is knowledgeable on business & media for sure.
But his one scoop that was not stolen, was 0-3

He's a shithawk, I knew that much already, I was just curious .

 

[FrankieNYC]

He's a shithawk, I knew that much already, I was just curious .

I never heard of him until November after an interview I did regarding TV negotiations was published.
Someone on SD alerted me, he pretty much said exactly what I did 2 weeks later.
I did not assume he stole it & have no idea if he did.
SBJ then backed up the info a week after that & they were alerted I had the info prior.
They contacted me & it opened dialogue (I believe they did not know I existed)
We discussed things and along with Meltzer and a few others would email, DM.
When MMALogic posted that 0-3 stuff in April, I was in the hospital. I came out & asked around & they all said there was zero truth to it.
I then was told that he takes others info without any credit & tries to pass it off as inside info.
A SD member used to post his stuff in every thread about business and he certainly has knowledge, but his correct info was always released by someone prior ... except for the 0-3.

When Meltzer, Nash, Ourand, etc. says something in a news report, I credit them until it becomes public record. they deserve that & know more than i do.

When I broke the amazon/UFC news, Dave credited me & put me over pretty huge as an insider in return.
I'm far from an insider, but people started following my SD post, so one gave me the Amazon exclusive.
Due to my health I decided to stop doing media reports even though I was paid pretty decent to do so.

I do this for fun & had no reason to think I could ever match those three anytime soon & with declining health I had no interest in doing 4-6 bylines a day (to get paid i had to do more than business info & it was not really my interest to do so).

That is the TLDR update lol

Nice back/forth man
I enjoy your postings

 

[FrankieNYC]

As I mentioned Monday*:
According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday, NBCUniversal is looking to bring back WWE Raw at a hefty increase while declining to re-up WWE SmackDown, allowing the company to shop the Tuesday night staple around to other media outlets.

The report also says Fox is a front-runner for Smackdown.
So it looks like WWE is going the UFC route of split content distribution


* I mentioned Monday that it looked like NBCU re-upped with WWE, but I had no idea it was only for RAW

 

[Sheepdog]

I'm baffled that ESPN would pay 10 million per card for their fledgling streaming service and Fox is looking to pay more than it currently is for half as many events when ratings are going down the toilet.

But I always said that while WME continue to run the actual product into the dirt, it was always going to be a game of hot potato as to who ultimately suffers from it. The general sports TV rights bubble and the desperation to get new streaming services off the ground have converged at the perfect time for WME and they have played their hand well in these negotiations it seems.

If WME do follow through and reduce the amount of PPVs, then the product will improve slightly as well.

 

[aghof]

I never heard of him until November after an interview I did regarding TV negotiations was published.
Someone on SD alerted me, he pretty much said exactly what I did 2 weeks later.
I did not assume he stole it & have no idea if he did.
SBJ then backed up the info a week after that & they were alerted I had the info prior.
They contacted me & it opened dialogue (I believe they did not know I existed)
We discussed things and along with Meltzer and a few others would email, DM.
When MMALogic posted that 0-3 stuff in April, I was in the hospital. I came out & asked around & they all said there was zero truth to it.
I then was told that he takes others info without any credit & tries to pass it off as inside info.
A SD member used to post his stuff in every thread about business and he certainly has knowledge, but his correct info was always released by someone prior ... except for the 0-3.

When Meltzer, Nash, Ourand, etc. says something in a news report, I credit them until it becomes public record. they deserve that & know more than i do.

When I broke the amazon/UFC news, Dave credited me & put me over pretty huge as an insider in return.
I'm far from an insider, but people started following my SD post, so one gave me the Amazon exclusive.
Due to my health I decided to stop doing media reports even though I was paid pretty decent to do so.

I do this for fun & had no reason to think I could ever match those three anytime soon & with declining health I had no interest in doing 4-6 bylines a day (to get paid i had to do more than business info & it was not really my interest to do so).

That is the TLDR update lol

Nice back/forth man
I enjoy your postings

is MMALOGIC an actual insider? It's kinda hard to tell...

 

[FrankieNYC]

is MMALOGIC an actual insider? It's kinda hard to tell...

No idea
He certainly is knowledgeable about business though.
I don't know his history enough to say that much more
All I was told is he rarely (if ever) credits the guys he takes news from (so it seems like his)
I don't do the UG
There was a Sherdogger that used to troll my threads with "MMALOGIC said ..." & when people that were on both showed the time/date, mine were usually first lol
Difference was, outside of a few things I broke or found out, I credited the source (Meltzer, Nash, Variety, SBJ, etc) & he didn't (on those I saw)
After MMALOGIC broke the news that NBC?ESPN signed UFC & they were doing split rosters (lol) that guy stopped posting his stuff.

 

[Weidman's right nut]

Perhaps this has been answered already, I don't know, but question @FrankieNYC . How much TOTAL revenue would a typical 500K buy PPV bring in for the UFC?? I know it's aprox. 17.5 million in their share of the actual PPV dollars but when you add in what FOX Sports1 pays for the prelims, sponsorship, advertising revenue, etc....what is your best estimate on the total revenue the UFC would receive on such an event?

 

[FrankieNYC]

Perhaps this has been answered already, I don't know, but question @FrankieNYC . How much TOTAL revenue would a typical 500K buy PPV bring in for the UFC?? I know it's aprox. 17.5 million in their share of the actual PPV dollars but when you add in what FOX Sports1 pays for the prelims, sponsorship, advertising revenue, etc....what is your best estimate on the total revenue the UFC would receive on such an event?

Hey man
Tough to gauge

But a 500k PPV buy would be over $20m these days
UFC reportedly gets about 55% per PPV the last PPV deal (since they are the biggest PPV content)
Add in that every internet buy they get a bigger % of & it is over a $40 ave per PPV easily

I wrote this to a post asking if I thought Nunes/Pennington made money on SD

So there are variable per event that make it tough to gauge

But very smart to include the FS prelim money as well in the total day/event financials.
I have yet to see a breakdown that goes that far
All we know is UFC got $165m this year (escalated) from Fox for all content

Great query though, but tough to answer & give a guesstimate

 

[Weidman's right nut]

Thanks @FrankieNYC It didn't dawn on me that there would be different costs depending on the location....makes sense MSG would be way higher than say an event in middle America.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Thanks @FrankieNYC It didn't dawn on me that there would be different costs depending on the location....makes sense MSG would be way higher than say an event in middle America.

You are welcome my man

I have friends at MSG
After midnight, MSG goes into OT for the venue & every union
They charge a ridiculous amount

So much so that WWE stopped doing any TV/PPV there about 5 years ago & they have a long history together.

The venue rental is bad enough, but if you are doing anything televised, you get it in the rear.

Plus even with a discount, every expense in Manhattan is higher

In Vegas they get deals on venue, hotels, tax breaks, etc.

Outside of America I bet is completely different with different fee & tax structure, plus cost to fly & set up local offices.