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[Sakara=Excitement]

Did Over 16 Million Americans Really Watch UFC 100? - Bloody Elbow

In this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription only), Dave Meltzer reports on a very interesting internal survey recently commissioned by the UFC:

There's a lot to unpack here. I'd really love to see the actual study, just to get an idea of how big the sample was and where it was drawn from. It certainly does not include the number of people who stream the show illegally, but at the same time that number only adds to the total number of viewers watching the show, so it doesn't hurt the study.


I'd be interested to know if the sample includes those that pay for the Yahoo stream. In my personal experience, if I order a show I am far more likely to have people over to watch it than if I just watch it on the Yahoo stream. I've always questioned the "10 people per event" number the UFC throws out, but I've been to a fair share of event parties with 10-20 people at the show, half of whom see a couple events a year, if that. It would be also interesting to know if this study includes events at sports bars, which often have upwards of 200+ people.

The fact that 10 people show up to watch PPV events on average is very significant, if true, especially when you consider the 1.5 multiplier for Spike shows. Some writers, including yours truly, have floated a theory that it's better to compete against the UFC on PPV nights because even their biggest number is still smaller than their average number on Spike TV. This new data suggests that competing against the UFC on PPV dates would be a flawed strategy.

Many have argued that the UFC is stunting its long term growth by sticking to a PPV model. According to proponents of this theory, the UFC should be willing to take a short term revenue loss in order to get a broadcast teleivision deal, which would help expose the product to the masses. But if this internal survey data is correct, going on free television is unlikely to increase the total number of people that see the fights. If these numbers are correct, over 16 million Americans watched UFC 100 on PPV. Does anyone think they'd have done much higher than that on broadcast television? It seems like people find a way to see these shows regardless of whether they're free.

The survey's conclusion that most fans that watch are not hardcore MMA fans is not a huge surprise. This is why companies like the IFL fail while PPV's like Ortiz-Shamrock 2 draw huge numbers. However, it would be a mistake to assume that entertainment and sports are entirely distinct from one another. The fact that Machida-Shogun drew a bigger number than Griffin-Ortiz suggests that even those fans that watch for entertainment purposes are largely influenced by sports considerations.

[TheKidInside]

yeah americans love Brock duh!

[snakebite]

All i know is that i watched the best of ufc 09 a couple days ago on spike tv. I was laughing out loud because of what goldie said!!! He was talking about ufc 100 when he said that it was the biggest ufc event in history with an estimated 500 million yep 500 million viewers worldwide!!!! I PROMISE thats what they claim!! what a joke!!

[GSPvsSILVA2012]

The usual amount of ppl watching the PPV with me is 3 including myself. I did have about a 10 person UFC 100 party though Is UFC the only company to count 10 ppl for 1 ppv or do other companies assume that as well? I've heard over and over again that the UFC inflates it's PPV buys to appear more popular.

[tucker50]

I think 16 million seems to be a pretty fair number. I heard from several sources like TSN, the Globe and Mail, and CBC radio, that the Canada/USA gold medal hockey game a month ago peaked at just over 26 million people in Canada alone. That's a pretty ridiculous number seeing as there are only about 33 million in the country. That event was obviously a much bigger deal, like orders of magnitude bigger, in Canada but UFC 100 was big too so to think that approximately 1 in 10 americans watched is not unreasonable. It has already been said that people want to see Brock fight, so basically, I would say, yes 16+ million americans probably did watch UFC 100.

[JCVD]

There is usually me and about 4-6 of my friends watching a normal UFC event at my house but for UFC 100 about 15 of my mates showed up! I wouldn't be surprised if it got 16million. There was alot of people asking me about it who don't watch mma and here in Ireland and the UK aswell its on an ESPN sports channel that has alot of soccer matches on it so most houses have the station already ordered for the soccer and other sports.

We get the event for free through that station so i would imagine the numbers in UK and Ireland were pretty high. Well not necessarily for free, you pay for the channel and you get a number of sporting events through the channel. But at least we don't pay ppv, not sure how much longer that will last though.

[kalebarker]

It did 1.8 million buys. Most people that buy UFC ppv's invite a bunch of people over. Combine that with all the bars and restaurants that pack people in to see it and the illegal streams I think 16 million is about right.

[IceCold48]

Originally Posted by GSPvsSILVA2012

The usual amount of ppl watching the PPV with me is 3 including myself. I did have about a 10 person UFC 100 party though Is UFC the only company to count 10 ppl for 1 ppv or do other companies assume that as well? I've heard over and over again that the UFC inflates it's PPV buys to appear more popular.

its possible i always have at least four people, eight for 111 and about 15 for 100, also you got to take into account that bars have a ton of people that will cause higher numbers