Are You Approaching Retirement Age? Then You Probably Watched UFC on FS1 Last Saturday
On Saturday, UFC drew their best viewership for a Fox Sports 1 (FS1) special since last year. Even more impressive, the show featured a main event of The Korean Zombie vs. Dennis Bermudez, two fighters not known for their star power.
Unfortunately for UFC (and FS1, for that matter), the underlying numbers weren't so good. Compared to the previous FS1 show (BJ Penn vs. Yair Rodriguez on a Sunday night), ratings in the 18-34 year-old demographic fell by nearly one-third. Compared to last year's pre- Super Bowl special on FS1 (a show originally scheduled for pay-per-view, headlined by Johnny Hendricks vs. Wonderboy) fewer than half as many 18-34 year-olds watched.
This is not good for UFC or FS1. Both organizations want viewers, but they want those viewers to be relatively young. Last Saturday's telecast pulled a strong audience among people over 50 years-old (roughly even with a year ago; up over one-third compared to last month). Soon-to-be-unfortunately for Yours Truly (the author turns 50 ten years from Thursday), television viewers over 49 years-old are less valuable than those aged 18-49.
Why are older television viewers less valuable? As with most things in TV, follow the money.
Television networks make money via subscribers, advertising and syndication (a.k.a. reruns). Sports get nearly nothing in syndication and it's impossible to calculate a single product's effect on a network's subscriber numbers. Advertising is a known quantity. Advertising buyers typically pay more to have their ads air on shows that draw younger viewers.
To use a wrestling analogy, last Saturday's UFC on FS1 show was like drawing a large attendance at low ticket prices, like WWE did with the Royal Rumble. UFC and FS1 would rather be like a Canelo Alvarez fight, where the attendance may be smaller, but the gate receipts are a heck of a lot larger.
Unfortunately for UFC (and FS1, for that matter), the underlying numbers weren't so good. Compared to the previous FS1 show (BJ Penn vs. Yair Rodriguez on a Sunday night), ratings in the 18-34 year-old demographic fell by nearly one-third. Compared to last year's pre- Super Bowl special on FS1 (a show originally scheduled for pay-per-view, headlined by Johnny Hendricks vs. Wonderboy) fewer than half as many 18-34 year-olds watched.
This is not good for UFC or FS1. Both organizations want viewers, but they want those viewers to be relatively young. Last Saturday's telecast pulled a strong audience among people over 50 years-old (roughly even with a year ago; up over one-third compared to last month). Soon-to-be-unfortunately for Yours Truly (the author turns 50 ten years from Thursday), television viewers over 49 years-old are less valuable than those aged 18-49.
Why are older television viewers less valuable? As with most things in TV, follow the money.
Television networks make money via subscribers, advertising and syndication (a.k.a. reruns). Sports get nearly nothing in syndication and it's impossible to calculate a single product's effect on a network's subscriber numbers. Advertising is a known quantity. Advertising buyers typically pay more to have their ads air on shows that draw younger viewers.
To use a wrestling analogy, last Saturday's UFC on FS1 show was like drawing a large attendance at low ticket prices, like WWE did with the Royal Rumble. UFC and FS1 would rather be like a Canelo Alvarez fight, where the attendance may be smaller, but the gate receipts are a heck of a lot larger.
Comments
Post a Comment