UFC on Fox

Hey Scott,

Huge fan, longtime reader. You don’t get too many questions about the UFC on your blog so I thought I’d mix things up for you.

Dana White has said that they have to remain a "PPV company" because they didn’t get anywhere near the money that other sports get for broadcast fees. Obviously this is true. The SuperBowl would be on PPV if the NFL didn’t get billions of dollars for their TV right fees.

However, with the current UFC 7 year Fox deal ending a couple years from now, shouldn’t the UFC really concentrate on putting together major cards for Fox to show them they can get decent ratings….thus being able to get major sport money for their next deal? Sure there was a title fight on the last card but TJ Dillashaw isn’t exactly going to bring in tons of people to watch.

Shouldn’t they really start bringing the big stars to Fox to one day become a major TV sport?

​Nope. Totally different business model. The money they make from FOX is nice, but McGregor v. Mendes doing a million buys (plus another 3 million or so in live gate) made them way more money than they get for a random FOX show. The point of UFC is still like WWE used to be — use the TV shows for exposure to entice people to buy the PPV. And apparently that also worked for Ronda Rousey this past weekend as well, with indications being that she did another huge buyrate for a nothing fight. As soon as you start training people that you can see the big stars for free, then they don’t want to pay to see them any more.

And Dillashaw did fine, actually. The TV shows are actually ideal for that kind of weight class, because guys like Mighty Mouse and Aldo are only pulling 100K buys per show anyway, so this kind of outlet can increase exposure to them and make people want to see them on PPV. Jon Jones pretty much made himself a star via the Fight Night specials, for example. ​