Spike Exec: It’s time to play with the big boys
“I think there’s a point that comes in any promotion where you want to play with the big boys, right? Pay-per-view is the big boys and you want to put on premium fights.”
Going head to head with the UFC has proved to be a good way to make a small fortune, by starting with a large one. However, along the way other promotions have proven to be competitive on a number of fronts.
One is talent. While the UFC has the vast majority of the world’s top fighters under contract, it never signed Fedor Emelianenko, who many feel is the greatest fighter the sport ever saw. The World Series of Fighting welterweight division is deep, with Jake Shields, Jon Fitch, Rousimar Palharaes, and Josh Burkman.
Too, rival organizations have proven to be compelling on network television. EliteXC pulled in some huge numbers on CBS, notably with Kimbo Slice. Bellator 106: ‘Chandler vs. Alvarez 2’ broke over 1,000,000 viewers and was reported to be the most watched MMA show last Fall.
However, the one area that no rival organization has ever been able to touch the UFC’s success is PPV. It is one thing when someone, or a million people, vote with their eyeballs. It is another when they will spend 50 bucks to watch TV for three hours.
Viacom hopes to change that with Bellator 120 on May 17th, featuring Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler III, Rampage vs. King Mo, and Alexander Shlemenko vs. Tito Ortiz.
Luke Thomas spoke with Spike TV President Kevin Kay about the event.
Luke Thomas: For Bellator 120, why make the jump to pay-per-view at all? What does going to pay-per-view do that staying on television does not?
Kevin Kay: Look, I think there’s a point that comes in any promotion where you want to play with the big boys, right? Pay-per-view is the big boys and you want to put on premium fights.
It’s nice to give stuff away for free, but there’s an economic model and pay-per-view is a real opportunity to make some money. Hopefully that translates to lots of different things. It’s a business opportunity. Pay-per-view is also an opportunity for fighters to make more money in success because guys at the top of the card potentially earn more. So, I think it’s good for everybody…
I think pay-per-view is about money. I’ll just be honest. That’s what it’s really about. It’s not rated, there’s just a buy rate. It’s really about revenue generation and revenue generation for a promotion, for a network, for our pay-per-view partners and for fighters.
LT: True or false: If Bellator did fewer shows per season – understanding this would complicate the existing business model, but taking the hypothetical for what it’s worth – and was able to stack them more, the ratings would be higher.
KK: I don’t know. Here’s what I’d say about that: we have a tournament structure that doesn’t permit for that to actually happen, so it is a true hypothetical. The only thing I would comment on about that is that one thing that makes the tournament structure difficult is you say to yourself, ‘Let’s not go up against the Olympics because that’s going to suck all the air out of the marketplace and it’s going to be a tough thing. Let’s not start until the Olympics are over at the end of February.’ Then you’re like, ‘Ok, now we’re up against the NCAAs.’ If you had less fights and you weren’t stuck with the tournament structure, you could schedule around that a little differently, but because you have to go eleven weeks in a row, that’s the challenge you face.
That said, that’s what we do. And we’ve been very effective at it. I don’t believe that’s changing anytime soon.
LT: Going forward, what changes do you want to see for the next season that you can improve upon for the broadcast or the Bellator product? What would you like to see changed?
KK: I think the message of the tournament structure just needs to continue. It’s complicated. It’s hard because of injuries, we all knew that going in. It’s important that we continue to do what we did this season, which is make sure we have a big main event on every card so that people show up. One of the other things that got implemented this season was to try to start the night with a big fight or with a name people know, so you don’t lose the lead in that you have because you’re getting a great lead in from ‘Cops’ and a lot of people show up. Make sure that first fight starts within the first couple of minutes and hopefully it’s a fight that’s recognizable with fighters that people know. You get them there, you keep them there and they stay for a big main event.
I think the tournament structure is hard. In no way do I mean that in a negative, as in we don’t like the tournaments. It’s just the explanation of it and the consistency of it and the injury quotient makes it hard for the audience to follow sometimes. They just have to continue to do a better job of explaining it and continue to do a better job of executing on it and keep your fingers crossed, hoping there’s fewer injuries.
