If you had to guess what percentage of the audience stream PPVs for free vs pays for them...

[rjmbrd]

Overall interest is through the floor and that is across the board. The PPV buys, ancillary shows like Ultimate Fighter, big Fox, FS1, all of it has been spiraling ratings.

I live in a large metropolitan area and very few people are aware of anything going on with the UFC. I've been to bars/restaurants playing a UFC PPV for less than a dozen people. The average age UFC viewer is up and it doesn't seem they have figured out how to attract new, young fans.

ESPN might make a dent in this, just from sheer volume of exposure to general sports fans. I have a hard time seeing around the insistence on $65 PPV events with the best fights all year long however. WME made a tremendous deal with ESPN, but long term they will have to address the fact that less and less people (especially young people) are interested in their product.

 

[skylolow]

That sounds really low, I would say closer to 80-90%. Why would anyone pay 65d if you can find a free HD stream in less than a minute? Not that I would do such a thing, just a thought.

Well it is a lot when you think about the numbers.

Say a PPV does 300K in buys. Studies have pegged the avg. PPV buy is seen by like 5 people (if my memory is correct) and bigger PPV's 7 or 8 people on avg. So with 300K about 1.5 million are watching in a home setting. Bars we don't get those numbers but lets just say another 100K people. If we look at just the people at home then 30% to 40% would be like 450,000 to 600,000 people illegally streaming it. To me that number seems believable. If your saying 80 to 90% that is like 1.2 to 1.3 million streaming it. Maybe, I don't know.

Let's face it there is easy ways to go about watching it and harder ways and both way can give you questionable play back. Because of that I know people who a lot of times just download it Sunday morning and watch it.


I just hope the PPV numbers continue to slide and the UFC final sells off the rights to someone like HBO or Amazon or even put it on FightPass and charge $20 a month. I know that day is coming sooner than later as PPV model is failed business model long term from day one. It only works when go to the pocket of your fans maybe 4 times a year long term. The UFC's PPV model is for sure reaching towards it death outside of about two guys that can draw now and both are hard to get in the cage right now.

 

[skylolow]

Overall interest is through the floor and that is across the board. The PPV buys, ancillary shows like Ultimate Fighter, big Fox, FS1, all of it has been spiraling ratings.

I live in a large metropolitan area and very few people are aware of anything going on with the UFC. I've been to bars/restaurants playing a UFC PPV for less than a dozen people. The average age UFC viewer is up and it doesn't seem they have figured out how to attract new, young fans.

ESPN might make a dent in this, just from sheer volume of exposure to general sports fans. I have a hard time seeing around the insistence on $65 PPV events with the best fights all year long however. WME made a tremendous deal with ESPN, but long term they will have to address the fact that less and less people (especially young people) are interested in their product.

A lot of truth right there.

Young people today hate to be told you have to watch something at this time on this day. TV is not as important to the younger generation as it was in previous generations. They are all about being cater to on their own time frame(ie: binge watching a tv series). Sports have been one of the few forms of entertainment that will always buck that trend but even they recently have had some rating decline.

I truly believe UFC's number one issue is just over saturation at this point and it only getting worse with the ESPN deals. So many events have little meaning to the outcomes of the matches. Fans for the most part have moved on from caring about the 18th ranked WW fighting the 15th ranked WW. The only time their interest is really peaked is for big match ups. But this is kind of the norm in a lot of sports. The regular season has some peaks in viewership but a lot of ho hum ratings but once playoffs hit it goes of the charts in ratings for many sports. UFC's problem is when interest is peaked the fan usually has to pay and that doesn't go over well long term and we are seeing that first hand today. I also think that's holding back bringing in newer fans and the newer fans that are being attracted have grown up in a very tech savvy world and can get the content for free usually. If there getting it for free you have hard time tracking the demo's of your product. I truly believe that MMA is still very young crowd regardless of what number say on TV demos. I don't know to many 50+ year olds that are gun ho on MMA.

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

The vast majority of people watching are streaming.

I only buy the big events.

 

[2004 account]

You would get a good idea conducting a survey thread asking “when did you start streaming ufc events” and you will get a good idea because sherdog has a good sample size that while it doesn’t represent the whole that well, gives you a ballpark figure.

 

[Mondo Freaks]

i would say 60/40

 

[Danis_champ]

I think if they lowered PPV price between 10-20 bucks most people would stop streaming. Few million buys for a decent card wouldn't be miracle

 

[Post 2 Decision]

I might actually pay for PPVs if they were below 30 bucks (CAD)

If I go out to watch then I pay 5 bucks cover + food and drink. Usually gets me for 30-40 bucks.

Then again if I do watch at home, there is the FREE option.

But I would never do that, there are no victimless crimes. Can't even begin to imagine how many lives I would ruin if I stole a PPV.

 

[VulcanNervPinch]

...what would be your best estimate?

Im asking because of all the talk about MMA dying because of the declining PPV numbers, when it might be that the sport is more popular than ever, but that more and more people just watch it for free, since it has become so easy.

And the tanking TV numbers?

 

[NoContest]

Pretty sure that a lot of streamers are the same who complain about fighter pay...

Yeah, they really should make a UFC fighter's fund so that we can stream the fights and just send a few bucks the way of the fighters, bypassing the money grubbing owners of the UFC and Dana White. I might actually pay then.