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BT Sport loses UFC rights


Art Vandelay

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If ElevenSports has a PPV channel I think the big cards will be on PPV. Especially those involving Conor. Didn't the head of UK UFC say they wanted to transition the U.K. market into pay per view?, so it might be on the horizon in the near future. 

We don't know if UFC have packaged everything together (including Fight Pass exclusives & all the PPVs) and BT didn't want to pay over the odds for it. Or UFC just are offering TUF, UFC on Fox and Fight Night shows. That could be why BT pulled out of the bidding. 

If Sky comes in for the UFC I think it'll be a wrap that all the PPVs (& probably UK based events) will go on Sky Box Office. Since it'll help offset their costs as you can imagine what McGregors first fight back would do PPV wise so they could make a mint of one fight alone.

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Greedy cunts. 

PPV is all well and good and I get the logic. But even a McGregor fight, I doubt it's going to do that big a number simply because it's probably going to be on at 3 o'clock in the bastard morning. That's going to lessen the number of buys to some degree, surely? The thing with the Boxing PPVs on Sky Box Office over here is that they're nearly always cards that are held in the UK, so they're on at prime time AND usually headlined by Anthony Joshua AND they have the backing and buildup of Sky. McGregor's the most likely to shift buys here but his fights are almost certainly going to in be America at 3am.

It's going to take something very special to make people outside the hardcore MMA watching bubble fork out £15-20 or whatever they're planning to charge, for a fight they've got to stay up until 6am for. You've got to remember as well, a lot of people probably get a few mates around for Joshua's fights on Box Office, all chip in a few quid and make a night of it. You're not going to get that so much for a show that starts at 3am. The only time I really remember middle of the night PPV over here which probably did well, was Lewis vs Tyson in 2002, which was obviously a monster. And when Ricky Hatton was at his peak and fighting in the States. His biggest fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao felt like must-see events and probably did pretty well. As much as I love them, I just can't see the UFC selling that well over here. There's the time slot problems but also the fact that MMA simply isn't as ingrained over here as Boxing anyway. 

Plus, I'm only talking McGregor's fights. It wouldn't just be McGregor PPVs they'd expect us to pay for. Wait until they start charging £20 for a card headlined by Woodley or Whittaker or someone. 4 buys max. Especially because people know MMA cards are traditionally plagued by injury pullouts, weight miss pullouts and all sorts. With MMA you just can't have the confidence that the card you plonk your hard earned money down for will actually end up happening. I mean, can you imagine if we'd paid PPV for UFC 223 then the bus smashing bollocks happened, killing off about 5 fights? Conor McGregor would've owed us all £20, the prick. 

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That's me cancelling BT Sport then. It's worked out well previously as I've had a decent deal having my broadband & TV with BT too. The UFC is the only reason I've paid the extra for BT Sport. I don't think I've even heard of 'ElevenSports' til' now tbh. Fuck PPV's too, back to streaming it the next day.

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That's my regular-ish viewing of UFC finished, then. We have BT Sports in our house, mainly for the football - for me, the UFC was a nice little extra. But I'm not paying extra to see it now, especially not in this era with their mostly shit match-making and interim title obsession.

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32 minutes ago, Dead Mike said:

 That's me cancelling BT Sport then. It's worked out well previously as I've had a decent deal having my broadband & TV with BT too. The UFC is the only reason I've paid the extra for BT Sport. I don't think I've even heard of 'ElevenSports' til' now tbh. Fuck PPV's too, back to streaming it the next day.

This is what I think it's going to drive a lot of people to do. Maybe they'll make a little bit more money short term from whatever PPV buys they get, but long term I think this might shrink the overall fanbase and popularity of MMA here because a lot of people are going to be put off. We don't know the ins and outs yet, prices etc, but if it's what we think then I really think they've overestimated the UFC's popularity here and they'll set themselves back a bit in the UK. 

If all the numbered shows end up on PPV here then I'm going to skip some. Simple as that. Just can't justify paying for shows every month. That's essentially another monthly bill. And paying £20 for a Mighty Mouse squash match or something is very low on my list of priorities these days. I'll have to pick and choose and find other ways to watch the rest. 

I haven't missed a UFC card since probably 2006. Not one. If I'm not going to be willing to pay for every PPV then there probably aren't many who will. I just think they'll end up putting people off watching with this. 

I was/am happy with it on BT Sport. Easily the best coverage of the UFC we've ever had. When this Eleven bollocks starts up I'm going to have to weigh up whether to keep BT or not. As it stands it works out well having BT because not only do we get UFC, the Frank Warren Boxing shows are also on there now and with the deal they have it means I also get Box Nation free. If I cancel BT when they stop showing UFC, I'll also lose the Warren shows and the Box Nation channel. But I just can't be paying out for ANOTHER channel when this Eleven thing starts up. I'll still want my UFC fix and I don't want to bin Sky Sports and lose the Matchroom shows either. So something's got to go and it's most likely going to be BT/Box Nation.

Sorry, Fish Eyes. 

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Edited by wandshogun09
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33 minutes ago, Pier Six Brawler said:

How many UK buys did Mayweather vs McGregor do?

"Mayweather vs. McGregor set a new pay-per-view buy record in the UK, with one million households paying to watch the biggest fight of the year."

I am going to wait and see how this pans out. It doesn't make much difference to me. I have never subscribed to BT Sport and have been watching the UFC and NBA through streams for years. 

I can't see them being that stupid to try and charge an additional fee for UFC PPVs whether through TV or online. 

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24 minutes ago, Art Vandelay said:

If Eleven Sports get it all, it might not be so bad. Looks like they’re charging 8 quid a month. All online streaming through their site and upcoming app though - no TV channel.

Wait, no channel? That's a bit shit. I sound like an old cunt and I don't care. I don't want to be fucking around with streams and apps at 3 o'clock in the morning. 

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Just now, wandshogun09 said:

Wait, no channel? That's a bit shit. I sound like an old cunt and I don't care. I don't want to be fucking around with streams and apps at 3 o'clock in the morning. 

This is my bugbear. I can set the box to record, get HD quality & easily skip through the ads & stuff right now. I'm totally happy with it. If I've got to stream through an app on my tablet & cast it to my TV with varying levels of stream quality etc I might as well just do the same through an unofficial source. The convenience is lost.

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Aye, despite having watched UFC on streams for years, I do still prefer to watch stuff on TV. Streaming can be a right ballache if you want to watch something live. For future reference, if anyone needs a website to watch the fights the day after they happen, feel free to PM me. 

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4 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Wait, no channel? That's a bit shit. I sound like an old cunt and I don't care. I don't want to be fucking around with streams and apps at 3 o'clock in the morning. 

Aye. They've said that they 'are open' to negotiating regarding a TV channel on Sky, Virgin etc but it's all about streaming. They've basically said they'll have their app on pretty much every device, like Netflix.

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