Don’t worry, this is still an MMA site, but apparently it’s become TV news day here on https://mmainsight.com!
Following on from our report earlier today that Virgin have secured a deal with BT Sport in the UK, it’s now emerged that in the U.S FOX Sports 1 has finally got it’s ducks in a row ahead of this weekend’s big launch by securing carriage deals with DirecTV, The Dish Network and Time Warner Cable.
The news comes just in time for MMA fans as this Saturday’s launch includes six hours worth of UFC content culminating with the ‘UFC On FOX Sports 1” aka ‘UFC Fight Night: Shogun Vs Sonnen’ event which will feature 10 live fights.
News of the deal, which means the channel is going to be available in 85 million homes on it’s launch, will come as a relief to all concerned, including the UFC.
Dana White had played down the issue earlier in the week stating that it was FOX’s problem, but that wasn’t telling the full story. He knows the UFC has been handed a major honor here by being given the opportunity to help kick-start the network and he’ll be eager to make as big an impact as possible on the ratings front while also making sure that as many fans as possible get a chance to see one of their biggest free-to-air shows ever.
Now the challenge in the remaining few days ahead of the show will be to ensure that as many people as possible are aware of the new channel’s existence and that there’s going to a big fight happening at the weekend. FOX have thrown a lot of marketing muscle behind the launch which should help, but just like when the UFC switched from Spike TV to FOX’s family of channel’s, it may take a while before fans adapt to the changes.
Hopefully not too long though as FOX Sports 1 is now going to be the home of all the UFC’s television programming (aside from the ‘UFC On FOX’ events) including the upcoming season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ starring Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate, plus regular ‘UFC Fight Night’ events, pre-and-post fight coverage and the flagship ‘UFC Tonight’ show.
