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Report: UFC reaches agreement with ProSieben TV channel in Germany
By Zach Arnold | November 27, 2008
Basic details about the deal can be read here. Baz Online story here.
This is the TV channel in question. More details on the cable/satellite channel here. UFC is going to try to lay the ground work (reportedly) by airing episodes of The Ultimate Fighter before running an event in Germany.
How much will this increase the appeal of a Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture fight in the German marketplace?
Speaking of Europe, Anderson Silva reportedly is helping ticket sales greatly.
Update: Here’s a Der Spiegel article.
The UFC has spread across the United States like a flu virus. Condemned as “human cockfighting” by Senator John McCain 12 years ago and banned at the time throughout much of the country, the UFC is expected to bring in $250 million (€200 million) in revenues this year. Experts estimate the value of the operation at $1 billion (€800 million).
Now that Ultimate Fighting has become established in the American market, the rest of the world is next. The UFC has already held six evening fighting events in Great Britain, all of them sold out, and championship fights are scheduled for Dublin in January and the Philippines in April. UFC comes to Germany for the first time in mid-June with an event in Cologne, and fights are also planned for China, India and Dubai.
Well, the Ireland event with Rich Franklin and Yushin Okami was not exactly a rip-roaring sellout…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Silva thing doesn’t surprise me. People wondered why his Countdown was so highly rated and his PPV was so un-bought…it’s simple. People find him interesting and exciting, but they want to see him in big fights. Silva vs. Cote wasn’t a big fight and no one cared. To be a draw, you have to fight other draws. That’s just the way it is. To date, he’s never fought another draw- Rich Franklin never became a star virtually because of the same reasons, fighting in UFC’s terrible 185 category against no name opponents. Silva (and Ed Soares) is smart enough to realize that.
Silva vs. a name fighter will do much much better, whether on PPV or TV.
The Couture vs Liddell rumor makes more sense now. They would most likely air the first TUF season in Germany, with Couture and Liddell as coaches.
Just a thought, I think that report is misleading. I know that in the US, the UFC sells something like 70-80% of their tickets they are going to sell in the first week of the on sale. Selling only 4200 tickets is not a good sign for a building that I think holds well over 15,000.
It’s obviously the UFC name in London selling those tickets. When Chuck Liddell was announced for London they sold 10,000 almost right away.
That and all the papers who were talking about Liddell vs. Silva
Zuffa ist negotiating with Pro Sieben, but they are still far from reaching a final deal. The German source was quoted out of context here.
Leidecker is to be trusted on this one for sure.
Rumor has it Sokoudjou has been cut from the UFC.
Pro 7 is very popular outside Germany too, so this is a big thing for MMA in Europe. Smart move by UFC.
Thanks, Fluyid. This shit is happening in my backyard, so whenever something groundbreaking happens, you can expect me to be closely following a story.
K1-Sports.de confirms this story, its a done deal.
With all due respect, but K-1 Sport is a fan website. I’m in direct contact with the person who is negotiating with Pro Sieben for the UFC and he has told me it is *not* a done deal.
Tim is right, I just talked with someone equivalent on the other side of things that said real close but no deal yet.
“If Brock Lesnar KOs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Is He Better Than Fedor Emelianenko?”
Just this being posed as a legitimate question… wow, talk about tripping over each other to get to the front position of the Brock Lesnar bandwagon…