Bellator 199 averages 453k viewers on paramount

I know this has been a bit of a trend but could the rebranding from Spike to Paramount have effected anything?

Well, for me the actual channel number didn't change just the name. I don't know if that's true for everyone but if so that would seem weird to me.
 
To be honest I didn't expect this card to draw a big number BADER vs MO is a good fight but the rest of the card wasn't stacked and I knew there was competition from boxing and a UFC ppv.
 
It's not just Bellator, it's MMA in general. The UFC has lost over 50% of it's pay per view ratings since 2016, and over 30% of prelim rarings.

There was a lot of air in the MMA business a few years ago. Stars with a lot of flash but little longevity. Of course ratings are gonna go down with Rousey, Conor, Lesnar and others gone, and with the legitimacy of the sport hurt.

Without the big stars around, what we have left is mostly oversaturation. Both Bellator and the UFC needs to take another look at making MMA marketable and entertaining without relying too much on superstars that will let you down.
 
I know this has been a bit of a trend but could the rebranding from Spike to Paramount have effected anything?

Paramount is actually getting more viewers than Spike. The problem is a lot of those new viewers are women from reports.

I think what its showing is Spike had a lot of static viewers, people who just left there boxes on all the time tuned to Spike regardless if the TV was on or off. Its the only thing that makes sense. Otherwise you have to say fans are moving on from Bellator and good luck to Bellator's future.


Bad part about all this is its obvious the money has been spent by Viacom to help Bellator and so far its going down hill in the ratings department.
 
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It's not just Bellator, it's MMA in general. The UFC has lost over 50% of it's pay per view ratings since 2016, and over 30% of prelim rarings.

There was a lot of air in the MMA business a few years ago. Stars with a lot of flash but little longevity. Of course ratings are gonna go down with Rousey, Conor, Lesnar and others gone, and with the legitimacy of the sport hurt.

Without the big stars around, what we have left is mostly oversaturation. Both Bellator and the UFC needs to take another look at making MMA marketable and entertaining without relying too much on superstars that will let you down.

The difference though is Bellator is only generating around 20 million in revenue and the UFC is 100's of millions in revenue yearly. UFC has proven its fans will pay money for the product and its media outlets are willing to pay big dollars for the product.

Stars will come an go, ratings will go up and down, etc. The UFC is built to last through those periods and nobody know if Bellator can withstand those issues. You can't tell me bean counters are happy when a 150K-300K fighter salary card does 500K rating and 1.5 million salary card does 700K. That is ugly no matter how you want to sugar coat it with attendance or whatever.
 
I expected much worse tbh...... Bellator isn’t worth shit to Paramount though. The ONLY ads were for Bar rescue and Women Tatoo drama shows....so crap they can’t even sell ad time !
 
yeah i had thought the same thing before about them testing it on CMT and also getting viewers used to bellator being on CMT in case they switch it over, thanks for verifying this. do you know when a decision will be made on this? for sure nothing changes this year right?
@FrankieNYC has better info then me.
 
@FrankieNYC has better info then me.

Re: Bellator moving to CMT

nothing is definitive, but ratings & logic point in that direction.
it is well known that the tourney is a hail mary
So maybe after?
its not a set in stone situation
 
UFC prelims dud really bad too

Bellator took a good chunk of the viewers from the pic that was shut.

Ratings are down across mma
 
UFC prelims dud really bad too

Bellator took a good chunk of the viewers from the pic that was shut.

Ratings are down across mma

Well to be fair the UFC prelims were on FX and so avg joe had to look for it. Plus there wasn't much for an avg fan to even waste their time on with the prelims. It was very weak prelim and that is being nice.

Bellator is more or less putting one of their best card forward and failing.

I'm seriously getting worried about the long term sustainability of Bellator.
 
Paramount ratings are bigger than Spike, except for Bellator
Are any streaming sources taken into consideration? I stream the fights through the Bellator app since everything is tape delayed on the west coast. This has to be another reason they are getting hurt in the ratings...Even the paramount network app (since it logs in thru uverse) is tape delayed through the App. I called ATT and there is nothing they could do about it. I would imagine not being on a sporting channel is hurting as well.
 
Are any streaming sources taken into consideration? I stream the fights through the Bellator app since everything is tape delayed on the west coast. This has to be another reason they are getting hurt in the ratings...Even the paramount network app (since it logs in thru uverse) is tape delayed through the App. I called ATT and there is nothing they could do about it. I would imagine not being on a sporting channel is hurting as well.

Streaming numbers are so low they barely matter
I remember Meltzer reporting on them a few months ago & it was nowhere near 100k (like 10-30k)

MMA is in a slump. That goes for both companies.

Regarding network:
Spike was not a sports channel either, but they did better.
The issue with Bellator is the ratings are down & they are spending more. Viacom lost money with Bellator in 2017.
The rumored CMT move might be a reality.
 
The move to a non "Network for guys" hurt
I don't think CMT is a fit & IMO makes the company look "redneck" due to the branding.
I don't have a solution
The solution would seem to be do not overspend on old guys who do not draw and stick to building cheaper homegrown talent.
 
The solution would seem to be do not overspend on old guys who do not draw and stick to building cheaper homegrown talent.

I meant where they air the events going forward.
 
Well if UFC 224 only sold 85K PPV that means Bader/Mo had 5x the eyeballs on it (in the USA at least) than whatever fight was happening on UFC 224 at the time.
 
I meant where they air the events going forward.
That's quite a conundrum. Main problem is Viacom owns them so it has to be a Viacom channel and they do not have CBS any more. Maybe MTV for the youth audience but I do not think MTV viewers want non-reality programming anymore.
 
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