Can't We All Just Get Along?
To counter-program or not to counter-program, that is the question?!?
The goal of any MMA promotion, besides making money, should be to do whatever is possible to advance the sport. When companies stage opposing shows, on the same night, they are doing nothing but decreasing the number of eyeballs seeing either show. How is that a positive thing on any level?
Regardless of how well a card does in the ratings, it would do even better if it wasn't going head to head with another live MMA event. Essentially, when a promoter chooses to counter-program a competitor's event, they are shooting themselves in the foot! The goal of stealing viewers from another event might be achieved, but at what expense? Both show's numbers would undoubtedly be considerably better if they were on separate nights. That's a fact!
Obviously I'm referring to Zuffa's decision to stage a live UFC event on Spike, April 17th, the same night that Strikeforce is airing a live event on Showtime. From strictly a talent standpoint, Strikeforce wins this battle hands down. There's really no disputing that. Strikeforce is having a virtually unprecedented 3 title fights on their card that is loaded with top level talent. On the other hand , the UFC's card, which isn't finalized yet, won't come remotely close in talent or in true quality MMA match-ups. Zuffa's card will have "popular" fighters on it, most likely Kimbo Slice, but Kimbo is far from a quality MMA fighter. A potential main event of Kimbo vs Matt "Meathead" Mitrione is almost embarrassing as far as the actual talent level. Comparing that to the likes of Gilbert Melendez vs Shinya Aoki, Dan Henderson vs Jake Shields and Gegard Mousasi vs King Mo, all title fights, is like comparing a Mercedes to a Hyundai. The disparity is enormous!
Besides attempting to sabotage Strikeforce's TV ratings, Zuffa is also possibly going after their live gate by holding the UFC show in Tennessee, the same state that the Strikeforce event is happening in. These guys are not playing games. You have to respect Zuffa's voracity and aggressive approach to maintaining the significant gap they currently hold on the North American MMA market share. But ultimately, no pun intended, is it the smartest route to take for the betterment of the sport?
Strikeforce's head honcho, Scott Coker, has thus far taken the high road in the counter-programming battle with Zuffa. He had an opportunity to put on a free live show (on either CBS or Showtime) opposite the WEC's first PPV event on April 24th. In his words, "CBS had an opportunity to do the fight on April 24th and go after the WEC pay-per-view date, and they said, 'No, let's just do it on April 17th and be nice guys'. Now that the counter-programming is coming their way, I think there is some fluidity in what could happen." Given MMA fans already negative reaction to having to pay for a WEC card for the first time, Coker could have done serious damage to the success of that show. He chose not to. But there is still a possibility that that could change. The original decision to not go against the WEC PPV might have been a goodwill gesture, hoping Zuffa would reciprocate that down the road. It might also mean that he fears Zuffa and doesn't want to further antagonize the beast. Or maybe, imagine this, Coker actually cares about the sport of MMA and knows that the more eyes watching every MMA show, regardless of who's promoting it, the better it is for the sport overall.
We all know Zuffa lives and loves to kill any potential competitor. Does anyone remember PRIDE? The tactic of "buying it and killing it" worked very well for Zuffa. They far from invented this basic business practice, as it happens everyday in all types of industries. Companies swallow up other companies just to kill the competition. While it may be $mart, is it good for the advancement of the sport?
And in the age of DVR and Tivo, is counter-programming even effective any more? Any real fan is watching both shows back to back, and deciding for themselves which to watch live.
Please?!?
http://www.budo-mma-nyc.com/
This is a tough discussion and a very intriguing topic actually Budo. It almost comes down to a question of business or sport.
ReplyDeleteIs the UFC in this to better the sport by potentially giving up market share and costing themselves millions? Or is the UFC about business no matter how brutal it might be.
The reality is that I dont believe the counter is happening on April 17th anymore, but that does not keep us from discussing the topic. If you take a concept of putting the sport first then things like co-promotion and no counter programing really come into the picture.
But for those that wanna come along and start talking about how the UFC does not try to better the sport, lets also consider the amount of money the UFC is spending on regulation and other items that are building the sport.
The UFC's goal as a business has to be to build the sport through the way they want it to be perceived. While I understand that this will not be every fans view, I do believe that it has to be the view of Dana White and Lorenzo. They are business man. Why would they continue to create a change for Strikeforce to steal even 3 or 5 percent of the North American market share.
By doing that they then allow competition to get closer and their revenues and profits to decrease. Sorry but when it comes to this business I really struggle to see where if the UFC has a direct competitor they are going to make more money. They have almost the whole market share right now, a direct competitor would mean Strikeforce is up to 30 or 35 percent minimum of that market share.
While as a fan I dont like counter programming as I like to watch the fights live, as a businessman I get it.
I believe TN had a law that only 2 or 3 percent of tickets can be comped and this could have caused major issues for the crowd at the Strikeforce event imo.
Again I think this is a fascinating argument that will continue to come up as time goes and what it all comes down to for me is the perspective of the business vs the perspective of the sport and the fan.
Buffaloblue
I tend to agree with Buff's assessment. Nobody would blame nor go after Coke if they went hard into a market controlled by Pepsi. This is just the way free market capitalism works - Zuffa has no responsibility to insure SF's (read: MMA as a whole) survival. Zuffa's responsibility is to Zuffa. Any benefit to MMA as a whole is ancillary. As a fan, I would like to see all orgs allow their perceived competitors to flourish, but as a realist I can't expect this. We should just wait for SF to counter-program the UFC... Who knows, maybe one day they'll have the juice to do so.
ReplyDeleteAnd if I'm Zuffa, I want to do everything in my power to make sure that day never comes....
I think the main reason the UFC was considering counter programing this particular event is because it is a CBS card without Fedor. They obviously perceieve it as a weak card ratings wise, and going after it could end up destroying the relationship between Strikeforce and CBS. This would be the UFC's main goal. We all know that no one can compete with the UFC on PPV, but a company on CBS could. From a business stand point, counter programming this event would be a wise choice for the UFC.
ReplyDeleteOne of your main points was that both companies would lose viewship if there were 2 events on the same night, but as it stands, the UFC's viewership for a live event that night is 0. Sure, if they held the event another night, they would get more viewers than they would that night, but this would be an extra event. It isn't like they are planning to move an event, this would be 1 more event on top of the normal ammount, and in my opinion, the more MMA the better.
That being said, I agree with Buffaloblue. I don't think they will counter programme
Great Article.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first posted this blog, there was a ton of talk about Zuffa staging an event opposite Strikeforce. Now it seems like it was just an idle threat to scare Coker and SF. More mind games from Dana and company.
ReplyDeleteI also agree, that as a business, Zuffa is and should be primarily concerned with their bottomline. I just think that if they weren't trying to crush SF, and whoever else tries to compete with them, the sport would benefit. And if the sport benefits, so does their company.
All that said, I am a HUGE UFC fan and very much respect all they've done for the sport of MMA. I just think they could do even more given their position.
Will we ever see the day that Zuffa is involved in a co-promotion? I highly doubt it, but you never know.............