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Translating UFC’s big ratings for FS1; what’s with UFC’s reported DMCA copyright claims for child porn?
By Zach Arnold | August 20, 2013
I had a chance to sit down last week (before the UFC show on FS1) and do an interview with the Hot Cage Daily about what the expectations are for those in traditional media circles about the benchmarks for success/failure of UFC on the brand new sports channel. Given that the conventional wisdom is that UFC draws most of their casual fans from the pro-wrestling industry, would FS1 be able to capitalize and generate interest amongst traditional sports fans for UFC programming?
So far, so good for FS1 & UFC.
The 1.4 rating UFC drew on FS1 is outstanding. UFC is the one building block on that channel I *don't* worry about. The rest needs big work.
— FightOpinion (@FightOpinion) August 19, 2013
A 1.4 rating translates into 1.8 million viewers. Say this about UFC — it’s a “strong cable property” as opposed to a “strong network property” in television circles, but UFC viewers will walk over burning embers if a fight card has appeal and it’s not on PPV.
The UFC effect carried over onto other FS1 programming on Saturday night:
On Saturday after big UFC event, Fox Sports Live drew a 0.2 rating (476K) on compared to the 0.6 from ESPN's SportsCenter. How Sunday do?
— MMA Supremacy (@MMASupremacy) August 19, 2013
When UFC wasn’t on FS1 on Sunday, look out:
On Sunday night with no UFC lead in, Fox Sports Live only drew a 0.1 overnight rating (240K) vs a 1.6 for ESPN's SportsCenter. #sportsbiz
— MMA Supremacy (@MMASupremacy) August 19, 2013
It was a combination of two factors — first, no UFC carry over. Second, the programming on Fox Sports 1 sucks royally. The two goofy Canadians from TSN that were so heavily touted as can’t-miss-stars are hideous. The panel of ex-jocks and No Charissa-ma Thompson flopped as you would expect. And the Monday programming proved to be even worse than I thought it would be. Crowd Goes Wild with Regis Philbin is a hot mess.
While NBC Sports Network didn’t have the buzz of FS1 heading into the weekend, their rollout of the EPL was brilliantly executed. It had some real character and substance. All the reviews have been positive. In ESPN circles, they would much rather see FS1 succeed than the NBC/Comcast behemoth. It doesn’t mean that ESPN’ers aren’t mocking FS1 — and the mockery is well-deserved. However, the Mouse can’t be thrilled that Comcastic NBCSN is stepping their game up in the right way while FS1 is basically UFC dragging mediocre programming along for the ratings ride. No wonder Fox Sports suits want UFC to run so many shows, no matter how watered down the fight cards are.
The Boston crowd was great. The show turned out to be great, despite the hideous judging on display by the officials appointed from the Massachusetts athletic commission. Mario Yamasaki still doesn’t understand or comprehend all of the Unified rules. However, a couple of non-show related issues are surfacing publicly.
First, there’s this bizarre made-up controversy by Dana White about how Chael Sonnen is ranked by the media in lists:
Wow, Dana White is now putting the responsibility for UFC matchmaking on the media rankings. Interesting. They said it would have no impact
— Jonathan Snowden (@mmaencyclopedia) August 18, 2013
What makes the criticism so strange is that the lists are meaningless and yet the UFC is now using these rankings on television graphics. Imagine if Vince McMahon had used rankings from Pro Wrestling Illustrated on Wrestlemania broadcasts and had figurehead Jack Tunney lecture everyone after a card that Ricky Steamboat deserved to be ranked higher than Randy Savage in PWI magazine. Then again, boxing promoters used to take credence in Ring magazine rankings over alphabet soup sanctioning body rankings. The difference, of course, is that the sanctioning bodies control purse bids for title fights whereas the UFC is completely self-contained and is producing their own rankings system — which makes no sense in the first place.
The reality is that these kinds of gripes from Dana is Silly Season material. What isn’t Silly Season PR-wise is when your company gets entangled in this kind of story on the abuse of copyright claims.
UFC hires IP Arrow to police copyrights online. IP Arrow claims UFC owns copyright on child porn. Oops? http://t.co/ClUvO24iPL
— WhatYouPayForSports (@whatupay4sports) August 19, 2013
How would you like to have your company associated with filing DMCA claims in which the claims state that you have copyrights to child pornography?
I’ve contacted the companies IP Arrow is currently issuing takedowns for (along with IP Arrow itself — whose site is now mysteriously down) and will update if I receive any replies. While I appreciate the fact that these companies are seeking to protect their copyrighted material, I think they should be concerned that the agent representing them is now linking their names with very questionable porn. They should also be concerned that these sworn statements are also claiming they “own” copyrighted content belonging to others, but I would imagine things like “incest porn” and “15 year old vaginas” appearing on takedown requests in their names will be more troubling to them than the serialized false statements IP Arrow is issuing.
This kind of overreaching by the UFC on eliminating piracy, a battle that simply cannot be defeated, will backfire in a big way. It’s also illegal to file DMCA claims on material that you don’t have copyrights to, although enforcement of such provisions in the law is like trying to find someone who will prosecute a television network or promoter for violating The Ali Act (it just doesn’t happen). Unless, of course, your name is Righthaven.
These kinds of stories involving the UFC will attract more media attention in the future, especially given their platform with Fox Sports. There’s no need for UFC to be picking these kinds of fights where the outcome is largely a fait accompli. Zuffa is on the losing end of this battle and they’re simply throwing away cash into a cyber money pit and the end result is that their names are attached to copyright claims for child pornography.
Exit questions: What happens if it is UFC that ends up carrying FS1 and saving the channel’s bacon as opposed to FS1 giving UFC mainstream credibility? Will it mean more Fox cash to UFC in the future or will it mean an artificial glass ceiling for future growth if UFC has to continue carrying dead weight of awful Fox Sports 1 programming? Will FS1 become for Fox Sports what MSNBC is to NBC News?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I dont know much aboot it Boss. but I wouldn’t put that in a title.
Its not a battle that cant be defeated so far! (as far as copyright owners are concerned!) Eventually the monetary pressure will become great enough to consider the internet a “terrorist influence” thereby under the unrestricted aegis of the “NSA”.
College Football starts on FS1 shortly. That will give the channel another boost.
And then eventually MLB will come to it.
This is a long term project. Ratings for a sports recap show are meaningless. If FOX can fill enough days with meaningful sports programming they will have a decent channel on their hands.
As for the UFC… it is nice they are finally on a sports channel. Much needed. As long as they can do over 1 Million each week they will be fine. It will be interesting to see what the TUF ratings are.
Interestingly, the average age of an MLB watcher on Fox broadcast is 52 years old. No wonder they salivate over UFC demos.
MLB ratings have been going down for Fox. They wanted that Sunday night game…
Wow, that is old. Living in the North East, a lot of young people I know watch baseball. Both the Yankees & Red Sox have huge following amongst people of all ages. I guess that isn’t the same around the rest of the country. But it does make sense as to why ESPN and FOX try to have those teams on as much as possible for the weekend games.
Wow, So FS1 is already a failure after only 2 days? Thats the angle you’re taking already? Most of FS1’s live sports programming hasn’t even begun. They have major college football, major College basketball, Nascar, international soccer, and MLB/PGA in the future. They are second only to ESPN right now in sports inventory.
NBCSN has very little compelling sports inventory and their rating are not very good, and this is after a big head start. WSOF is already doing above the station average ratings wise.
[Wow, So FS1 is already a failure after only 2 days? Thats the angle you’re taking already?]
No, what I stated on Twitter is that right now UFC is the one polished professional product they have and everything else needs serious work. I think the general theory they’re using for logic is not sound and they will have to re-think their overall strategy down the road.
[Most of FS1’s live sports programming hasn’t even begun. They have major college football, major College basketball, Nascar, international soccer, and MLB/PGA in the future. They are second only to ESPN right now in sports inventory.]
They have some college football assets but not the SEC, which ESPN & CBS has. They have Pac 12 but it’s not even as big as Big 12, which ABC has ties into.
NASCAR is heading to NBC. Again, another feather in the cap for Comcastic peacocks. NASCAR & EPL will prove to be very valuable for them.
So far, soccer didn’t really prove to be a big attraction for Fox — and they pissed a lot of people off by having Gus Johnson work games. NBC figured out pretty quickly what they need to promote EPL right and the ratings have shown they hit the sweet spot. Like their positioning there.
MLB ratings for Fox broadcast & regional outlets has been on the decline. Plus it attracts a much older demo, which is something the Foxies harp hard about wanting young, young, young even though I don’t see anything inherently wrong with an older demo. But it’s not what Fox wants.
Golf – they got the US Open from NBC but I don’t see that as a big gain, especially since Comcast owns Golf Channel. NBC still has skin in that game (pardon the pun).
The story right now after a few days from the FS1 launch is that UFC is the strong horse, their programming has some carry-over for ratings that same night, but not enough influence to convince people to watch FS1 as an alternative to ESPN for other programming. And rightfully so, since a lot of the FS1 programming so far is dreadful.
As of 2015, NBC is getting the second half of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season from ESPN. You make it look like Fox is losing NASCAR. In fact, Fox is increasing their NASCAR presence. They are acquiring the six Sprint Cup races that currently air on TNT. And they will air the first half of the Nationwide Series season on FS1. NBCSN will air the second half of the season. The whole season currently airs on ESPN.
They also DO have Big 12 games and are more likely to pick up the NBA in 2016, the NBA will probably add a new package and it will probably go ABC-ESPN, TNT and FS1, NBC will probably bid but they have the NHL taking up a lot of TV time in the winter.
NBC SN will probably get get exclusive rights to the MLS in 2014 though.
Ed. — The FX Big 12 games generally were the B-level ones (like West Virginia/Baylor), where ESPN got the top games plus has the Longhorn Network, even if it is a failure so far.
As a huge boxing fan as well as an MMA fan, I’m very interested in seeing what FS1’s rating are for their live boxing event last night. Although, honestly, your typical boxing fan would be very hard pressed to find out that there WERE fights on from the amount of effort they seemed to spend in promoting it.
I follow the sport in a fairly hardcore manner & it nearly slipped by me unnoticed. Were there any commercials aired for it during Saturday night’s UFC card? ‘Cause I certainly don’t recall any.
Are you joking?
They had Oscar De La Hoya himself at the event and gave him airtime to do a live plug for the Golden Boy show.
A lot of people fell into the category of not knowing because the Golden Boy show drew around 150,000 viewers.
So far, UFC seems to be the one big hit on the channel.
Unfortunately, UFC didn’t do its homework and has been caught up in a terrible situation because their dmca takedown company should have replied to media request to avoid embarassing their client. Internet piracy is a realty but we, dmca solutions, hope more companies in our industry act professionally and do human verifications since software alone can’t do the job.