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PRIDE notes
By Zach Arnold | February 7, 2007
MMA Weekly reports that PRIDE will air their next Japanese show live in the US on PPV. (Ed. — I’ve done PBP before of PRIDE shows. The last Bushido show, 11/3/06 Yokohama Arena, lasted 6 hours. It started from 11 PM-12 AM PST. Nobody in large numbers is staying up this late to watch a Japanese show.)
Second, PRIDE’s desire to run shows in California is true. The Staples Center is believed to be the building of choice. No paperwork has been filed on behalf of PRIDE, and it’s still unknown who will be the licensed promoter (whether it’s Turi Altavilla or Ed Fishman). A meeting is expected in the coming weeks in California as far as the multiple Los Angeles shows in 2007.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It is completely irrelevant to mention the Bushido show, when PRIDE went right out and stated it would never happen again and that they had learned from their last two Bushido shows not to run such oversized cards again in the future.
The way to look at it is whether or not 4 hours will be the regular timeslot on US PPV from now on, and if we’re now looking at a roof of 8 fights per show. Intermission-length is also something they surely are looking at as part of this US-friendly development.
On the Pride website, the schedule of events lists Pride 34 as being scheduled for “April 7 (U.S. date).” I believe that means Pride 34 will be held on Sunday, April 8, in Japan, in the afternoon, which will allow it to be shown in the U.S. on Saturday night. Unfortunately for Pride, April 7 is also the date of UFC 69. I guess they feel that a live Pride show going head-to-head against a UFC PPV will still do better than a taped show. Or maybe they’ll air it live on FSN or another network.
This sucks because I will sleep even less than I already do! I am mos def in the HUGE minority though. Still, I am happy about live fights!
I didn’t even think about the UFC Houston 4/7 PPV. Oh dear… this is stupid.
Live Japanese PPVs in the states? Does that include Japanese production values?
“Unfortunately for Pride, April 7 is also the date of UFC 69. I guess they feel that a live Pride show going head-to-head against a UFC PPV will still do better than a taped show. Or maybe they’ll air it live on FSN or another network.”
The live airing could be head-to-head with the UFC PPV on a different PPV channel, or it could be immediately after the end of the UFC PPV on the primary PPV channel.
It would likely be right after the UFC PPV. Meaning a UFC show goes from 10 PM-1 AM EST, and then PRIDE goes on from 1 AM to 5 AM EST. You have to be kidding me.
I don’t see why that would be a negative. The people who really, really want to watch it live could buy the live show, and the majority of people, who aren’t going to stay up until 5:00 AM, could buy it on Sunday night like usual. I can see this as a “positive” or a “neutral” for Pride, but I don’t see how it’s a negative.
Another bad Pride idea?
If I’m a casual American fan (for which I am not), three hours of what I have been conditioned to think is MMA (which is UFC) is more than enough for me. Watching both UFC and PRIDE on the same weekend? It was hard enough to do on NYE if you are a normal fan, w/ a K-1 show thrown in. Only the hardest of the hardcore (which I consider myself to be) can tolerate that much MMA in one compact setting.
In addition, the actual cost of airing a show on PPV live from Japan as opposed to video tape… I don’t get this idea at all.
Fair enough, I just wasn’t sure what you meant. You make some valid points.
[…] PRIDE news regarding PPVs and California […]
“Watching both UFC and PRIDE on the same weekend?”
Them running on the same weekend is nothing new.
*IF* they go live right after UFC, it will at least make them visible to a lot of people, even if only a minority end up acutally buying the show.
Some insight on actual additional costs for a live feed versus reduced costs for not producing a seperate US version would be nice.
I’ll be up at 5am watching the live stream from Japan. I’m willing to order PPVs for my friends to come over, hang out, drink some beers, and watch some fights. I don’t think many people would be willing to stay up all night just to watch Pride. I’ll watch it solo on my computer streaming for free cuz I’m an asshole 🙂
The biggest cost differences for live as opposed to delayed tape are-
1. satellite time. this is a very significant cost for 3-4hours; it can run around $10,000 or more per minute depending on the satellite
2. other technical costs running a long live broadcast
so its a pretty big gamble. based on their crap ppv rates so far in the US, the cost of the live feed will eat all their revenue from their first 100,000 buys (since DSE only gets 1/2 of the PPV amount with the other half going to the ppv company
Buying 2 fight ppvs in 1 weekend is pretty expensive, and I don’t see how Pride can possibly win a battle vs the UFC at this point..It could be a very ugly ppv number for Pride, especially considering how little media attention they get here..