Doesn't look like fans are that thrilled with the cards lately. Certainly not enough to subscribe to ESPN+
The UFC was in Melbourne, Australia for Saturday’s UFC 243 fight card. The event set a UFC record for attendance with 57,127 fans packing into Marvel Stadium. This fans saw Australia’s Robert Whittaker lose his middleweight title to New Zealand’s Israel Adesanya in the main event of the pay-per-view portion of the card. The five-fight main card streamed on ESPN+. Before that portion of the event began, ESPN2 carried four fights from the preliminary card.
The prelims began at 8 p.m. ET with a women’s featherweight bout between Megan Anderson and Zarah Fairn dos Santos. Anderson, who hails from Australia, earned a badly needed victory in that bout when she submitted dos Santos in the first round. In the top contest on the prelim card, New Zealand’s Jake Matthews scored a shutout decision over Rostem Akman in a welterweight bout. Matthews won via 30-27 on all three cards.
The ratings for the prelims were not particularly strong. The two-hour event averaged 559,000 viewers, which made it the 20th ranked cable programming for Saturday, October 5. As for other sports events in that timeframe, the UFC event fell behind the Georgia vs. Tennessee college football game on ESPN, the MLB playoff game between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees on FS1, the NBA preseason game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors on TNT and the Liga MX game between Cruz Azul and Club America on TUDN.
The numbers for the event make it the second lowest-rated preliminary card in 2019. The only lower-rated event was UFC 242, which averaged 222,000 viewers. FX broadcast the prelims for UFC 242. The third lowest-rated event, UFC 240, averaged 722,000 viewers. That card was broadcast by ESPN. All other UFC pay-per-view preliminary cards were broadcast on ESPN.
According to Sports TV Ratings, both ESPN and ESPN2 are available in approximately 84 million homes as of April 2019.
Card AVG. Network
UFC 235: 1,480,000 (ESPN)
UFC 236: 893,000 (ESPN)
UFC 237: 813,000 (ESPN)
UFC 238: 964,000 (ESPN)
UFC 239: 1,145,000 (ESPN)
UFC 240: 722,000 (ESPN)
UFC 241: 817,000 (ESPN)
UFC 242: 222,000 (FX)
UFC 243: 559,000 (ESPN2)
UFC 243 Ratings: Event Is 2nd-Lowest-Rated PPV Prelim Card Of 2019
The UFC was in Melbourne, Australia for Saturday’s UFC 243 fight card. The event set a UFC record for attendance with 57,127 fans packing into Marvel Stadium. This fans saw Australia’s Robert Whittaker lose his middleweight title to New Zealand’s Israel Adesanya in the main event of the pay-per-view portion of the card. The five-fight main card streamed on ESPN+. Before that portion of the event began, ESPN2 carried four fights from the preliminary card.
The prelims began at 8 p.m. ET with a women’s featherweight bout between Megan Anderson and Zarah Fairn dos Santos. Anderson, who hails from Australia, earned a badly needed victory in that bout when she submitted dos Santos in the first round. In the top contest on the prelim card, New Zealand’s Jake Matthews scored a shutout decision over Rostem Akman in a welterweight bout. Matthews won via 30-27 on all three cards.
The ratings for the prelims were not particularly strong. The two-hour event averaged 559,000 viewers, which made it the 20th ranked cable programming for Saturday, October 5. As for other sports events in that timeframe, the UFC event fell behind the Georgia vs. Tennessee college football game on ESPN, the MLB playoff game between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees on FS1, the NBA preseason game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors on TNT and the Liga MX game between Cruz Azul and Club America on TUDN.
The numbers for the event make it the second lowest-rated preliminary card in 2019. The only lower-rated event was UFC 242, which averaged 222,000 viewers. FX broadcast the prelims for UFC 242. The third lowest-rated event, UFC 240, averaged 722,000 viewers. That card was broadcast by ESPN. All other UFC pay-per-view preliminary cards were broadcast on ESPN.
According to Sports TV Ratings, both ESPN and ESPN2 are available in approximately 84 million homes as of April 2019.
Card AVG. Network
UFC 235: 1,480,000 (ESPN)
UFC 236: 893,000 (ESPN)
UFC 237: 813,000 (ESPN)
UFC 238: 964,000 (ESPN)
UFC 239: 1,145,000 (ESPN)
UFC 240: 722,000 (ESPN)
UFC 241: 817,000 (ESPN)
UFC 242: 222,000 (FX)
UFC 243: 559,000 (ESPN2)
UFC 243 Ratings: Event Is 2nd-Lowest-Rated PPV Prelim Card Of 2019
