Variety: ESPN, Fox Sports Team Up for UFC TV-Rights Bid

[beefcake180]

For the other 500000000 non-UFC events a year they show?

You kidding? They usually only do 1 or 2 a week and sometimes go weeks without any. When EFN shooto and combate left they lost a ton of live content

 

[tithas]

You kidding? They usually only do 1 or 2 a week and sometimes go weeks without any. When EFN shooto and combate left they lost a ton of live content

Well in the next month they got:
AFC 139 April 18th
Cage warriors 93 April 29th
TKO 43 May 4th
Invicta 29 May 4th
Glory 53 May 12th
AFC 140 May 16th
personally Invicta, TKO, EBI, Glory and Quntet are worth the price alone to me.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Thanks for the update as always.

U r easily one of the better posters here. Feel better dude.

Thank you buddy
Much appreciated

 

[FrankieNYC]

Thanks for your threads & comments Frankie. Wishing you a healthy & happy recovery.

Interesting this gets floated out there. Usually investment banking deals are tight-lipped until an announcement. Wonder what's the purpose of leaking discussions. Some are saying 'to gauge fan reaction' but I doubt that's the only reason. It's apparent the 'splitting the roster' stuff was met with unanimously negative fan reaction, though it was probably nonsense from the start. If it's for leverage, my guess it's coming from Endeavor. But exactly how would that help any party to negotiations?

I heard there was nothing to the splitting of the roster stuff.
That is why no informed outlet ran with the news last week.

But more & more, deals get leaked
Remember how UFC being up for sale was leaked, before they actually started the closed bid
process?

With Fox & ESPN combining to bid, that means at least 2x the amount of people would know & even more of a chance of a leak.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Thanks for the update, Frankie. Hope all is well. This forum needs you.

Thank you a lot buddy
Hope you are well too

 

[FrankieNYC]

If they do this, it is really pretty shitty. Not even on a cable channel, straight streaming. Im not paying for cable, fightpass and espn + and not be able to dvr the espn fights. Fuck the wme for raping this sport to death. It really was something special and this WILL fuck things up for them, not make it better. Money does truly ruin everything

FP grosses about $50m per year for UFC now
No chance ESPN offers $120-180m for no on-air broadcast
I think the difference in the $120-180m is if FP is included (or not)
Otherwise they are offering 2-3+ times more per year than what UFC grosses & ESPN doesn't have that money to over-pay

 

[chrisdiaz]

FP grosses about $50m per year for UFC now
No chance ESPN offers $120-180m for no on-air broadcast
I think the difference in the $120-180m is if FP is included (or not)
Otherwise they are offering 2-3+ times more per year than what UFC grosses & ESPN doesn't have that money to over-pay

"a UFC deal would provide premium live-event content for the fledgling ESPN+ service not currently available on the company’s linear cable channels"

This makes it sound like it will be streaming on ESPN+ only. Either way they are doing their fans a huge dis-service trying to gouge them again to pay for more services to watch the sport. Its already getting watered down and you want me to pay more for it? Im a fight pass subsciber, order ppvs and pay my cable bill. You expect me to pay (yes its only 5 dollars but where does it end?) again to watch something ive payed 3 times now a month to watch? Its a real hard sell even as a 12 year mma fan....

 

[FrankieNYC]

"a UFC deal would provide premium live-event content for the fledgling ESPN+ service not currently available on the company’s linear cable channels"

This makes it sound like it will be streaming on ESPN+ only. Either way they are doing their fans a huge dis-service trying to gouge them again to pay for more services to watch the sport. Its already getting watered down and you want me to pay more for it? Im a fight pass subsciber, order ppvs and pay my cable bill. You expect me to pay (yes its only 5 dollars but where does it end?) again to watch something ive payed 3 times now a month to watch? Its a real hard sell even as a 12 year mma fan....

Fight pass has about 400k subs at $9.99 per month (yearly is discounted)
There is zero chance ESPN pays $120-180m yearly for OTT content that is worth $50m yearly in gross.

We also have no idea if ESPN+ absorbs FP completely (like the Amazon offer). So the offer might mean there will be no more FP or some joint combo

There is a reason for the $60m difference in the offer & that is most likely due to how involved the OTT is.
Right now everything is in play, so it can go in different directions.

But a cash strapped ESPN, offering 3-4x more for OTT content, than it currently is worth = no sense

 

[VAfan]

would be pretty cool seeing it on ESPN.

 

[chrisdiaz]

Fight pass has about 400k subs at $9.99 per month (yearly is discounted)
There is zero chance ESPN pays $120-180m yearly for OTT content that is worth $50m yearly in gross.

We also have no idea if ESPN+ absorbs FP completely (like the Amazon offer). So the offer might mean there will be no more FP or some joint combo

There is a reason for the $60m difference in the offer & that is most likely due to how involved the OTT is.
Right now everything is in play, so it can go in different directions.

But a cash strapped ESPN, offering 3-4x more for OTT content, than it currently is worth = no sense

You dont see how this deal could turn a lot of fans off? especially if its split between fox and espn. People bitch when a fight is on FS2 or FX, imagine every week you have to make sure you know what channel its on. Is it streaming? Espn2? Can I DVR? Can I rewind the live events like fightpass? Shit like this is just a big middle finger to fans and is only about the bottom line. I understand they are a buisness but this is something else.

PS: Always like your threads and they provide good insight, thanks bud.

 

[FrankieNYC]

You dont see how this deal could turn a lot of fans off? especially if its split between fox and espn. People bitch when a fight is on FS2 or FX, imagine every week you have to make sure you know what channel its on. Is it streaming? Espn2? Can I DVR? Can I rewind the live events like fightpass? Shit like this is just a big middle finger to fans and is only about the bottom line. I understand they are a buisness but this is something else.

PS: Always like your threads and they provide good insight, thanks bud.

You got it & thanks man
I like the back/forth dialogue
You counter respectfully & don't troll/bait , so it is enjoyable

No matter what UFC does, it will piss off fans (well Sherdoggers) lol

But we don't know how it will play out yet
This is an offer ... a really good one, but the variables are not decided yet.
The future (actual the present) of sports broadcasting is multi-platforms
OTT is the future, but the death of cable TV is widely over-exaggerated, so they need to do both.

I said in 2016, the way we consume UFC will be very different in 2019. Maybe knowing that 2 years ago, makes these things less of a jolt?

 

[dertdent]

Fight pass has about 400k subs at $9.99 per month (yearly is discounted)
There is zero chance ESPN pays $120-180m yearly for OTT content that is worth $50m yearly in gross.

We also have no idea if ESPN+ absorbs FP completely (like the Amazon offer). So the offer might mean there will be no more FP or some joint combo

There is a reason for the $60m difference in the offer & that is most likely due to how involved the OTT is.
Right now everything is in play, so it can go in different directions.

But a cash strapped ESPN, offering 3-4x more for OTT content, than it currently is worth = no sense

Most of the 50 million comes from international subscribers not US. I suspect WME planted the Variety story to get some more last minute bids. Just like the TerenzOwenz/mmalogic NBC/ESPN story from last week was designed to get negotiations going with FOX.

 

[chrisdiaz]

You got it & thanks man
I like the back/forth dialogue
You counter respectfully & don't troll/bait , so it is enjoyable

No matter what UFC does, it will piss off fans (well Sherdoggers) lol

But we don't know how it will play out yet
This is an offer ... a really good one, but the variables are not decided yet.
The future (actual the present) of sports broadcasting is multi-platforms
OTT is the future, but the death of cable TV is widely over-exaggerated, so they need to do both.

I said in 2016, the way we consume UFC will be very different in 2019. Maybe knowing that 2 years ago, makes these things less of a jolt?

I just want my cake and to eat it too. Bellators a hassle for me to watch cause its tape delayed meaning i have to stream thru the app. Meaning I have to be at the couch at 6pm or I miss fights. With the way the ufc has been, I can start a fight at 4:30pm that started at 3pm, stream the fight pass fights, DVR the prelims and be caught up by the time the PPV hits.

They are fucking with my schedule and I dont like it. Not to mention A LOT of streaming site players suck BADLY. Fightpass actually is really helpful Player with markers, fight card listing where you can skip to and thru fights. You look at bellators player and it blows.

 

[Bojka]

there was a rumor in that other rumor thread that it would be down to 6, i hope that's true.

Wouldn't that be bad for champs who get ppv points?

 

[mime]

Wouldn't that be bad for champs who get ppv points?

maybe stack the PPVs with like 3 title fights, will help if 1-2 title fights fall through, its unlikely all 3 would fall through. also just pay the fighters more from the tv revenue.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Wouldn't that be bad for champs who get ppv points?

Points only come into play after about 250-300k in buys & most times it begins at $1 per.
So the b-level PPV's they been doing, have hardly any points involved since most PPV's are 300k & under