UFC reruns top EliteXC debut in TV ratings

[Bullock]

"It’s probably no coincidence that the UFC aired back-to-back episodes of “Ultimate Knockouts” on SpikeTV this past Saturday during the same time slot of the Elite Xtreme Combat premier on Showtime.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the move looks to have been successful.

Here’s a snip:
The debut of Elite Xtreme Combat Saturday night on Showtime couldn’t top a rebroadcast of UFC’s Ultimate Knockouts 2 on Spike TV. EliteXC’s Destiny show from the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Miss., drew a total of 365,000 viewers on SHO in the 10 p.m. - 12:30 a.m., EST, daypart, while the UFC KO compendium on Spike attracted 1.2 million total viewers in the 10 p.m. time slot.

It’s important to note that Showtime is a premium cable channel, meaning people need to shell out extra to access it.

SpikeTV, meanwhile, is standard with most cable packages.

(That means that the audience for SpikeTV is larger than that of Showtime.)

As Seivert points out, however:

… the head to head does show where the majority of MMA fans spent their viewing evening.

The ratings are all the ammo UFC President Dana White needs the next time a reporter asks him about EliteXC, which he recently called a “rinky-dink” upstart in an interview with the Baltimore Sun.

Certainly not the last time we are going to hear about this …"

ufcmania.com

[Bran]

i'd like to see how many people watched UFC that subscribed to showtime. a LOT more people have spiketv. still, dana's gotta feel great about this.

[Hypergit]

365000 plus the internet undercard viewers sounds good to me. Well done Elite.

[Clint]

Damn. It seems obvious that live event vs live event Spike would win out strongly based on the fact that Spike has a larger potential audience. However I didn't expect a difference of that size between the EXC card and a rerun of ultimate knockouts.

To put things in perspective of neilsen ratings:
Exite XC got a 0.33
Ultimate Knockouts got a 1.09

[mauladala]

365K (live) vs. 1.2M (reruns most mma fans have seen many times) is quite suprising to me. What is the total subscribership to Showtime anyway? I tried to find the numbers...

[Bran]

i'd like to know the average ratings a live event gets on a premium channel. i have no point of reference to say whether or not its good.

[LethalStriker]

What is the total subscribership to Showtime anyway? I tried to find the numbers...

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 million.

It should be interesting to see the ratings comparison between UFC 70 in April and the EXC card on May 5. But then again that won't really be fair to EXC since its on the same night as the big De La Hoya fight.

[Rockx]

I think the point here is that it takes a lot of advertising and brand recognition to make a successful MMA show. No matter how much money a company like Showtime has, you cannot spread your name in the matter of months.

UFC has spent years making its brand mainstream in the US and elsewhere.

I don't think it is easy to just "turnkey" an MMA org to compete with something like the UFC or Pride. This is why Dana calls them "rinky dink", because they have not proven to have staying power.

[mauladala]

Originally Posted by LethalStriker

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 million.

It should be interesting to see the ratings comparison between UFC 70 in April and the EXC card on May 5. But then again that won't really be fair to EXC since its on the same night as the big De La Hoya fight.

Oooo. Good call. That'll hurt xc somthin' terrible. Although that fight might take a hit if Mayweather backs out.

So 15 mil... That makes 365K look fairly paltry.

[Bullock]

I may be wrong, but I can't help but think Showtime was hoping to have better ratings than this.