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2019 Non-Event General MMA Talk Thread


Elsalvajeloco

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7 minutes ago, Raziel said:

I don't see this backfiring at all.

If you're In Demand, Dish, or DirecTV, etc. I would say this has not worked out in your favor. What do you have to distribute now? Well, other than porn obviously? You just lost a quarter billion dollars in revenue, and the UFC is getting more money from ESPN.

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3 minutes ago, Raziel said:

That's going to be their big issue.  I mean, outside having to shell out an additional $60 on top of your monthly sub.

If you weren't going to buy the PPV in the first place, I don't see that as an issue. I mean I have U-Verse and you would have to pay 64.99 anyway. Basically, they're saving me five dollars if I want to see a PPV.

As for the bars, they're going to figure that out eventually. I don't see that as an issue at all.

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Re: UFC PPV on ESPN+

Even though the actual numbers of the new deal haven't been disclosed, based on listening to the recent WOR and what Marc Raimondi wrote, the UFC will be getting a licensing fee (likely between $15-$20 million per PPV) and then split the actual PPV revenue with ESPN 50-50. So until 2025, the UFC won't ever lose money on a UFC PPV.

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46 minutes ago, J.T. said:

If there were more people in the world like Tyron Woodley's mom, it would be a much better place.

Dude, the tears from watching that video. That woman seems like a saint.

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I'd be more on board with the ESPN+ move if we were getting more of a discount for buying into ESPN+. 

IMHO, buying ESPN+ just so you can purchase $60 UFC PPVs doesn't sound that appealing to me. I'm not against streaming subscription services and premium content, but if they are going to do this, they need a stronger bundling plan for ESPN+ and PPVs. 

Edited by TheVileOne
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1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

IMHO, buying ESPN+ just so you can purchase $60 WWE PPVs doesn't sound that appealing to me.

Hopefully, you don't get ESPN+ to watch WWE content.

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As for the bundles, I don't see the ESPN cannibalizing PPV just to artificially inflate subscription numbers like WWE. That goes ESPECIALLY if you're paying the UFC several million dollars per PPV off top. I'm surprised they even budged a little for existing subscribers because they didn't have to. It's not like PPV hasn't existed for several years now and people aren't use to paying those prices. I think the only thing similar to the 79.99 deal where you get ESPN+ for a year + one PPV they might do is to paying like a hundred bucks for the year, get one PPV, and an option of half off the PPV after that if you chose to watch the following PPV. You would be saving $50 if you were doing ESPN+ and purchased two PPVs off your cable/PPV provider. Other than something like that, I don't see UFC being as dumb as WWE when they launched their network. ESPN is doing Crawford vs. Khan at a retail PPV price of $59.95 exactly a month from now, and the Top Rank deal is nowhere near close to what UFC is getting. I think because the UFC has been successful through two months on their platforms, they (both UFC and ESPN) feel confident they don't have to show desperation and jump into the discount game.

I think if the UFC were in a similar spot Top Rank was in after a successful Year One on ESPN where it's clear people were starting to pick and choose events, I think ESPN would be in a rough spot. However, I think since the UFC has a much better social media presence on a per show basis than your typical boxing TV card and bringing some type of awareness, it's going to be easier to still be successful after the initial several month period on ESPN platforms. In addition, as I've mentioned before, the UFC's mid tier is ample compared to what Top Rank is bringing. Top Rank had a show on ESPN+ this past Sunday for St. Patrick's day with Michael Conlan in a special attraction after the "main event" of Luis Collazo vs. Samuel Vargas in a battle to find out who will be sacrificed to Terence Crawford after he smokes Amir Khan on the aforementioned 4/20 PPV (pun intended). The commentary promoted Finn Balor walking out with Conlan heavy. The thing is...the energy compared to when Top Rank did this during his pro debut St. Patrick's Day in 2017 (also Top Rank's first year on ESPN) when he came out with Conor was night and day. It felt like they could have done this off TV (to be specific ESPN+) even though they filled the Hulu Theater. No one was discussing it on Twitter or anything (granted, it was Conlan facing a nobody in what should've been an eight rounder in the middle of the afternoon/early evening). Even if the UFC had the luck they had a few years ago with the rash of injuries or the matchmaking just didn't line up, I don't see it ever getting that bad just because the UFC still brings a certain cache. Top Rank got lucky in 2016 when they had a few guys they built on HBO the previous 2-3 years who were bringing HBO pretty good if not respective ratings all things considered and not yet Al Haymon signed Manny Pacquiao. They were ripe enough to jump off HBO into their own separate deal somewhere else. Now...the situation is somehow more dire and uglier political with DAZN signing guys exclusively and PBC being aligned with Fox and Showtime. Plus, you know...the whole being second fiddle to the UFC. They still have Loma and Crawford but no real money fights for either guy on the horizon considering the political climate, and Lomachenko is limited just because 135 maybe 140 is the highest he can go really. They have several promising prospects but that don't mean they will draw on PPV eventually. They're not doing all that bad two years in considering how fractured boxing is but they still have a lot working against them. If all the UFC has working against them right now is a bunch of folks who weren't going to buy PPVs anyway being minorly inconvenienced, I think they will gladly accept that. They're going to make a bunch several million dollars off a PPV whether it does good business or not. Plus, ESPN is forced to put them all over their networks.

Sidenote: Apparently, Conlan may have pissed off Conor by picking Floyd, hasn't heard from Conor since then, and Conor chose to be in Boston last Sunday instead of going to New York for Conlan and Paddy Barnes. Petty.

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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