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[Cat--Smasher]

Bellator CEO says hardcore fans still associate MMA with Spike TV

Bjorn Rebney said he has Excel spreadsheets at the ready if and when ex-champ Eddie Alvarez receives an offer from the UFC. After plugging in the numbers, deciding whether Alvarez stays or leaves Bellator will come down to math.

Cost/benefit analyses are a constant for the Bellator CEO, who told MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) that hard data is the reason the tournament-based promotion is now widely considered the No. 2 player in the MMA space.

"We haven't based decisions based on wild expectations or wild conjecture," Rebney said. "We've made them based on real numbers."

And also real opinions. Rebney said his promotion has conducted over a dozen focus groups at live events and estimates he's done eight more aimed at getting opinions from television viewers.

"We're consistently doing every type of empirical study that you can do to get a better handle on just who's watching, and not just where they want to watch, but most importantly what they want to watch," he said.

As Bellator readies for a switch from MTV2 to Spike TV, Rebney said there is encouraging evidence that the promotion is due for a huge increase in television ratings. Not simply because the network is available in approximately 20 million more homes, or because the promotion possibly could be moving from Friday to an earlier night in the week, but because of the groundwork laid by Bellator's chief competitor.

"Studies have been done saying MMA fans associate watching MMA with tuning in to Spike network disproportionately," Rebney said.

The UFC first struck a deal with Spike in 2004, buying broadcast time on the network while bearing the cost of producing "The Ultimate Fighter," which debuted in 2005. Following the smashing success of the show's live finale, the network struck a deal with the promotion to produce more seasons of the show, which grew in popularity and launched the UFC as a national and international brand.

After six years as broadcast partners, the UFC in August 2011 struck a seven-year deal with FOX. Two months later, Spike parent company Viacom purchased a majority stake in Bellator to place the promotion on MTV2 with an eye on moving it to Spike TV once a one-year rights agreement between the UFC and Spike TV had expired.

In the past year, MMA programming on Spike TV, including re-aired UFC events and the original talk show "MMA Uncensored," consistently has drawn ratings that match or exceed live UFC programming shown on FOX-owned networks FX and FUEL TV (although the latter is available in less than half the homes of Spike TV).

"It's been almost a year now since there's been any live content on Spike network," he said. "My anticipation is that it will play itself out very nicely because of how the consumer base and the hardcore demographic views Spike as the home of MMA."

Bellator CEO says hardcore fans still associate MMA with Spike TV | MMAjunkie.com

[rabidsponge]

personally, when i think about mma i dont think about spike at all anymore.

[mmawolverine]

my first television media thought when someone says MMA is a ufc ppv not spike tv or any basic cable channel im pretty sure thats what dana thinks of too although he does love the fox deal, spike had their time to shine and they did the best they could for the ufc but its over now having bellator as second fiddle to the ufc is alot better than having TNAwrasln dwarfed by the WWEuniverse

[mma #1 fan]

this dude needs to find a better camera crew before he does any thing else if i have a problem with bellator it be that their camera crew always seems to be in the wrong spot at the best monent of the fight. If someone is about to get sub'd i dont want a view of the ref's ass i want a view of the fight.

[W.Silva>C.Norris]

I can honestly say I havent watched 15 minutes of spike since they stopped carrying the ufc.

[Sniggles]

I associate Re-runs to SpikeTV.

[mma #1 fan]

do you guys watch any mma thats not the ufc?

[The Donosaur]

I watch pretty much any mma I can. Spike=manswers (if that's still a thing) not mma, although I did enjoy how Spike was basically the UFC's bitch.

[CtGreat]

Originally Posted by mma #1 fan

do you guys watch any mma thats not the ufc?

I watch the big fights in belator, and every Strikeforce card. Other than those and the UFC, i only follow individual fighters that I like. Like Rumble.

Spike TV is shitty though...really shitty

[AnchorPunch]

Originally Posted by CtGreat

Spike TV is shitty though...really shitty

At least it's not Fuel TV

Come to think of it, what the hell does Fuel broadcast the rest of the time?!

Ok, I just looked it up. Thursday was all UFC and Pride highlights (pretty awesome really) and Friday was all the same plus a few episodes of "Strangers in Danger," which has the description "BMX pros Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla and Zach "Catfish" Yankush become a part of history, as they help expand the Panama Canal"

So, yeh, somehow Spike is actually better than Fuel when you look at everything sans UFC/Pride.