UFC 75: Spike TV ratings for UFC 75 are in
September 11, 2007 by Sam Caplan
The ratings for UFC 75 on Spike TV from this past Saturday, and they’re pretty damn good.
According to Spike TV, the show drew a 3.1 overall (3 million total homes) rating for a staggering 4.7 million viewers (I think the are factoring in multiple people watching at individual homes). The telecast peaked at 5.6 million viewers during the main event featuring Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Dan Henderson in a UFC vs. PRIDE 205 lbs. unification title match.
Looking at the breakdown of demographics, the show drew a 5.7 (1.6 million homes) when it came to males between the ages of 18-34; for males 18-49 it drew a 4.5 (2.5 million); and a whopping 6.2 (1 million) for males 25-34.
If the UFC can’t bolster its sponsor roster with ratings like that, I’m not sure what else they need to do. UFC 75 was the most watched mixed martial arts event in North American history.
The show did very well in the key male demos against its competition. In the male 18-49 demo is outdrew Oregon vs. Michigan on ABC, NASCAR on ABC, Virginia Tech vs. LSU on ESPN, and Penn St. vs. Notre Dame on ESPN.
For males 18-34, it outdrew all those events with the lone exception being NASCAR.
Hey, here’s a random thought pertaining to the UFC and Spike TV. Why not make the Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill rematch another edition of “Bad Blood” and televise it live and free on Spike?
i cannot imagine how showing one title fight and some “bad blood” or otherwise interesting matchups featuring TUF fighters a year in a free event could hurt their bottom line, not with spike ponying up dough. if it keeps making spike money, then ESPN and the biggies perk up. they love money.
I wonder if this success will lead the UFC to air more PPV events for free on TV? Certainly this business model has worked for PRIDE/K-1 in Japan…
Great idea with Bisping-Hamill. They could promote the hell out of that.
If they don’t do an event in January (and it doesn’t look like they will), that’d be a great bridge between the Dec. 29 and SuperBowl card.
[...] Yet another stellar showing from the UFC. Here is a snipit from the information that Sam Caplan [...]
I will say this, I don’t think I have ever seen a fighter that was hated by so many (Hamill) fight a fighter loved by so many (Bisping) end up losing the fight but at the same time due to judges & Bispings disgraceful post fight speech, end up gaining more fans then he could have ever imagined.
Hamill from hated to loved, in a matter of 15 minutes! He even had the gaul to come into a English venue and a pro-british crowd with “born in the USA” and he still won a majority of them over by the time the fight had ended. From boo’s to cheers. Really amazing.
Has this scenario ever played out before?
I have never seen the volume of response from 1 fight before. People lit up the message boards over this fight.
Spike could make a “bad blood” show because of that fight and it would get great ratings.
Fans love winners. They don’t care about nationalities.
I bet that UFC75 was broadcasted live for free in a lot of european countries also..
Anyone know what countries in Europe that got it? (Here in Sweden it was live and free in a channel that reaches aprox 50% of the population).
Was it free in the UK?
Oh btw forgot.
That Bisping - Hamill rematch for free at Spike ala Shamrock - Tito is a really good idea I hope that they do that.
[...] I busted Sam Caplan’s balls for having some silly ideas. Today, I say damn Sam, this is one awesome idea: Hey, here’s a random thought pertaining to the UFC and Spike TV. Why not make the Michael [...]
Why not just have them headline the Ultimate Fighter 6 finale on Spike? The coaches aren’t fighting anyway.
Pontus
I believe it was on Setanta PPV in the UK. Generally the US PPV fight cards have been free on Bravo and the UK events have been available only on PPV. I heard that UFC programming is switching over to virgin, so who knows if they continue to get the american ppv’s for free.