Bellator averaged 85k and peaked at 177k during the #PitbullMcKee main event for Showtime with Cable

The shills are out trying to spin this as good, LOL.

Its not.
It’s not amazing numbers, but it’s decent. I don’t know why anyone thought Bellator could beat UFC
 
You have to also add UFC's streaming numbers on espn plus. I think dana said it was atleast 600k to a million additional watch on plus.

85k average on showtime for bellators best fight in history is laughable. Campbell Mclaren and Combate shits these numbers 4am in the morning.

Confirmed Bellator is dying.
UFC reported numbers include traditional TV and streaming. They have been doing this for quiet a while.
 
It's that some people watch through streaming, but it's even more than that. Streaming has changed the game in that you can watch sports on a stream, that is true, but it's also changed the game in that with on demand entertainment, the concept of "channel time" has evolved into one of multiple considerations. Those who are fans of other sports know too, we see these types of headlines all the time these days. "NHL viewership at all time low." "NBA viewership at 10 year low." "NFL viewership at some low." "Olympic viewership at some low." And it's always construed to be like "oh well these leagues are failing, someone at the top is really slacking." It's little to do with the sport and more to do with the fact that the market being competed for isn't "combat sports" or even "sports" it's "digital entertainment."

The big players in digital entertainment are Disney, ViacomCBS, Warnermedia, NBCUniversal, and this weird Sony/Netflix partnership. And each of these have generated streaming services. These platforms each offer not just sports but also movies, TV shows, comedy, music, etc. The effect of streaming is two-fold. On the one hand, each individual program generates less viewership than it did or would have. Because consumers have more choice, they aren't "stuck with" programs that they aren't as interested in. On the other hand, what streaming has actually meant for TV is that a lot of formerly low-yield ventures are now profitable because in the past, programs would be competing for channel time, having one show on comes with the opportunity cost of having another show on. Even if you have ESPN, ESPN2, 3, U, there's still limited screentime. With on-demand streaming, I can watch whatever I'm personally interested in. Which will hurt the college volleyball game on ESPN3 that I would have been watching but will help the UFC which is what I want to watch, for example.

This has caused streaming services to be desperate for content because they want to capture as many corners and niches of the market as possible. Leagues you never figured would be popular are now signed to major streaming services, D2 sports, women's soccer, Premier Lacrosse. It's even why the UFC's streaming service, UFC fight pass, has added grappling, kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, an alphabet soup of small regional MMA orgs. Livestreaming technology is so cheap, all you need is a camera, a guy next to it talking and guys doing entertaining things in front of it to be profitable. Profitability is not solely or even primarily a question of whether or not you're profitable compared to this other program, it's whether you're profitable compared to your estimated contributions to the streaming service. While posting lower numbers, Bellator has continually maintained its value to ViacomCBS. If now Bellator generated 177k views on the TV program, and that many views on the streaming service, and it was 10th in Google Searches, which is a gauge of interest and people who might subscribe to that streaming service, in addition to having a live gate, and it contributes to the content library, then it's definitely successful.
 
Yikes. The hottest fight Bellator can do as well.
 
If Espinozas past statements are any indication, they do not care about traditional viewership but total viewership. Having said that, traditional viewership should be an indicator of how much people are watching in total, 177k is lower than anyone expected, myself included.

It was a big night for Bellator in the MMA media, they certainly won with all the hardcore fans. Casual fans is a different story, though.
 
What was the reason for them doing this on Saturday instead of Friday like they normally do now? Now their next card will be on a Friday, the same day of the PFL playoffs. The fact that they're willing to counter-program the UFC and a highly anticipated playoff card is just idiotic and piss-poor scheduling.
 
ESPN reaches 80 million through traditional TV plus 14 million OTT. Showtime reaches 20 million through traditional TV plus 8 million OTT.
 
There's no UFC on Saturday the 14th, so instead of putting it on that Saturday they're going to air Bellator 264 the same night as PFL. Really stupid.
 
There's no UFC on Saturday the 14th, so instead of putting it on that Saturday they're going to air Bellator 264 the same night as PFL. Really stupid.
Scheduling around the UFC isn’t as easy as you seem to think it is.
 
There's no UFC on Saturday the 14th, so instead of putting it on that Saturday they're going to air Bellator 264 the same night as PFL. Really stupid.
It'd actually be a really good idea to try and move that card, eh. One of the two should because otherwise they're going to dilute each other's numbers.

I'd like to see what a Bellator card could pull on a Saturday unopposed. Guessing similar numbers to this just with a weaker offering but who knows. The people saying this number is terrible simply aren't correct. Context matters a lot and in context this was a success. A game changing, UFC should be quaking in their boots success? Of course not, but a relative success.
 
UFC reported numbers include traditional TV and streaming. They have been doing this for quiet a while.

no that does not include espn plus streaming it's just cable. you can ask jedigoodman and he'll confirm.
 
There's no UFC on Saturday the 14th, so instead of putting it on that Saturday they're going to air Bellator 264 the same night as PFL. Really stupid.
That’s actually a really good idea.
 
There's no UFC on Saturday the 14th, so instead of putting it on that Saturday they're going to air Bellator 264 the same night as PFL. Really stupid.
Bellator always does Fridays tho, that is their thing. It's more that PFL moved from their traditional Thursdays to Fridays.
 
I don't think they could move it this late in the game, people have already bought tickets and made arrangements to go.
Exactly, they need to know way ahead like they did with the Holly Holm event in October they are going to go head to head with. I think they should just stick to Fridays and build a reputation for having great shows like they did last week.
 
bad numbers. showtime boxing does a lot better and we're not talking about big fights. run of the mill tv fights.
 
Scheduling around the UFC isn’t as easy as you seem to think it is.

Yeah, but the PFL playoff dates have been public for almost 2 months. How hard is it for Bellator to schedule a date one day later? People are sick of having to toggle between two screens to watch this shit.
 
It’s not amazing numbers, but it’s decent. I don’t know why anyone thought Bellator could beat UFC

it has nothing to do with the ufc. 85k average is shit regardless of what ufc does. There was a good breakdown on what peak viewership means on the UG a while back. If the average was 85k and the peak was 177k that means other parts of the programming was way below 85k. I cant imagine showtime is happy with only 30k people watching original programming on their network at any point in time and Averaging 85k over 2 or so hours on their network for original programming has to be dissapointing.

besides if these numbers were good and/or the streaming numbers were good showtime would be announcing it. but they dont because it's embarrassing. At this point only combate can save their bum lives.
 
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