UFC Pumps Up Fuel TV

MMA Kingpin Helps Pin 18-49 Viewers

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2012 12:01:00 AM

Fuel TV is being fueled by the UFC.

Kicking off with a marathon of the preeminent mixed martial arts organization’s fare on New Year’s Day, Fuel TV rolled to its bestever month during January, achieving major gains in overall viewership and males 18 to 49, albeit from small bases.

Moreover, with its first live UFC card set for Feb. 15 in Omaha, Neb., Fuel, which is engaging in a preview with distributors from Feb. 13-19 that will reach 8 million homes, is eyeing what could be its top telecast to date.

Fuel, which counts 36 million subscribers, tested the martial arts waters last year with MMA events to gauge audience interest in the genre, according to George Greenberg, Fuel’s executive vice president and general manager.

FOX’S GAME PLAN

As part of Fox Sports’ seven-year, $700 million UFC deal that includes live cards on Fox broadcast and FX, Fuel will air more than 2,000 hours of UFC-related programming, highlighted by six exclusive cards and more than 100 hours of live fights, weigh-ins, preliminary bouts, and pre- and post-fight shows.

“We’re presenting more interviews, news and personalities from the UFC than ever,” Greenberg said, noting the MMA kingpin will account for 40% of Fuel’s programming pie, with the balance tied to its action sports heritage and other fare.

Greenberg said the belief was that the strong ties to UFC would help push the action sports proponent’s audience composition, which had principally been males 12 to 34, to the 18-to-49 set, with a sweet spot of males 18 to 34. That transformation has begun.

With the New Year’s Day marathon, Fuel stepped into UFC’s octagon with its best-ever Nielsen day, ringing up a 378% surge from its January 2011 Sunday average, and its second-best day with men 18 to 49.

In January, Fuel, with UFC occupying most of its primetime and late-night hours, pinned a 227% jump in total viewers to 36,000 watchers on average and a 325% increase among guys 18 to 49 in primetime, compared with January 2011 deliveries. In late fringe, the advances weighed in at 211% and 275%.

Relative to guys 18-49, Greenberg said the UFCfueled “increases are allowing us to compete with networks that are double and triple our size in terms of distribution.”

Greenberg said Fox Sports Media Group research figured it “would take a couple of months before UFC hit full force for Fuel,” a time frame that encompasses the card from Omaha, which will feature veteran welterweights Diego Sanchez (25-4) versus hometown favorite Jake Ellenberger (26-5).

‘FULL FORCE’ TIME

Fuel’s two largest audiences to date came from live UFC preliminary bout coverage for UFC on FX 1 on Jan. 20 and UFC on Fox 2 on Jan. 28, which averaged 148,000 and 144,000 total viewers, peaking at 237,000 and 212,000.

Greenberg expects Fuel’s first exclusive live card to “perform at a high level, if not at the highest level we’ve seen so far.” Bookended by one-hour pre- and post-card shows, the live UFC telecast, which is produced by the MMA outfi t, will span all of primetime.