Mixed Martial Arts is taking a big step to becoming a major player on the national sports scene.
Starting this April, CBS will broadcast four EliteXC events on Saturday nights, marking the first appearance of MMA on network television. EliteXC, as described by its own president, is the “Pepsi to [UFC’s] Coke” — meaning the league cannot quite compare to the Ultimate Fighting Championships, which has drawn good numbers for years on Spike TV.
The broadcasts will not be under the umbrella of CBS Sports, instead being produced by Pro Elite. CBS will pay a license fee, “but the network will retain all advertising revenue.”
The deal is an interesting one for CBS, a network that skews towards older demographics. The young male demographic, elusive and valuable to advertisers, makes up most of the audience for Mixed Martial Arts events.
While this is a major deal for MMA, CBS has less at stake. By putting the events on dead Saturday nights, CBS assumes very little risk — a fact executives at the network openly acknowledge. Kelly Kahl of CBS Sports told the Los Angeles Times, “[t]he bar for success is not very high. But we’re curious to see what happens.”
The success of this deal depends not only the on the ratings, but on whether or not advertisers will want to align themselves with a sport once described by presidential candidate John McCain as “human cockfighting.”
One sign that major advertisers are warming towards MMA also came yesterday, when Anheuser-Busch signed on with the UFC.
Under a three year deal, Bud Light will become the exclusive beer sponsor of UFC, and “Bud Light signage will appear on the ring’s center mat and vertical bumpers” of UFC events beginning May 24. Bud Light will also be the presenting sponsor for a variety of UFC-related events, including “two PPV events a year” and the World Extreme Cagefighting series.
With major advertisers on board and network television eager to get involved, the future looks bright for MMA. However, these are just the first steps for a sport that will need to prove its mainstream popularity.
