Breaking News: Fuji TV Cancels PRIDE!
 

This could potentially be very big news in terms of how this effects the company's future.

http://www.mmanews.com/article/151513361.php

holy shitty. i wonder how we're going to see the rest of the owgp?? somebody gotta film it and get it up online for us mooches! this is bad for pride, plus they're trying to debut in the u.s. soon, this damn sure isn't going to help their cause.

Shouldn't effect their U.S. PPV stuff, at least not directly as a result of this situation. However, this situation COULD be bad enough that it really screws up stuff for the company in the future in a number of different ways.

Wouldn't other networks want to take Pride in? I'm sure there will be at least one network out there who cares more about money than image (or I hope). If not, Pride could always use their connections. :thumbsup:

I'm sure other companies may want to pick up Pride but it will still probably hurt them financially. Since the other big Japanese channel has K1, Pride may possibly be forced to move to a smaller television channel and thereby lose a ton of money. This whole Yakuza issue might also hurt the advertising revenue as well. We will definatly have to see how this pans out.

I just read somewhere it could effect the PRIDE PPVs in the U.S.

Excerpt (credit: Zach Arnold)

"The directing boss of the US PPVs is Jerry Millen, and he’s the one who got the shows onto Dish & DirecTV. The question you indirectly bring up is what will happen to the US PPV situation? The reason I mention this is because DSE (US) pays a broadcasting fee to Fuji TV in order to air the footage on US PPV. With Fuji TV now out of the picture, I don’t know what they will do as far as future broadcasts."

well if fuji tv is no longer involved then dse would just pay the new company to air the fights it doest make any sense that they will not be on ppv here. being on tv doesnt effect the fact that the commentators will still be there and the fights will still take place. pride will find itself on a diff station.

I don't know man, Dave Meltzer came out today and made it seem worse than what we originally thought. He's comparing it to WCW of 2001, and from a public perception standpoint he says PRIDE in Japan is ten times worse than WCW in America in 2001 right before they went out of business (with the first thing being getting dropped from TBS and then TNT)

Not only will it affect Pride but all other promotions. Because there would be a major bidding war over the top Pride fighters. K-1 Heroes, UFC, Strikeforce, WFA all competing for the big names.

I guess in the long run for us that'd be better. The North American audience would benefit big time from all that talent needing a new place to go, especially with the business booming over here the way it has been lately. I doubt PRIDE goes under though, it just seems impossible that it could end. So until that's mentioned as a strong possibility, I'm going to assume everything at least in the fans eyes for U.S. PPV and PRIDE as an organization putting on events, remains the same.