RavishingRickRudo 0 Report post Posted August 26, 2003 From MMAWEEKLY.com UFC president Dana White appeared on Monday's MMAWeekly Radio Show and announced a massive awareness campaign that the UFC will be running on national television to raise awareness about mixed martial arts. It wasn't the announcement of a weekly TV deal as many fans were hoping, but it was probably the next best thing as far as mainstream awareness for the sport of MMA. The advertising campaign will debut on September 5 in the form of a 30-minute infomercial that will air on Spike TV and Comedy Central more than 250 times in a two-week period. Spike TV is the new name for TNN and is also the home of the WWE, which consistantly has one of the highest-rated shows on cable television with WWE Raw. Dana White has said on the record that the UFC is talking with Spike TV (and a few other networks) about a weekly TV show for the UFC, and he reaffirmed those statements on Monday's radio show. The UFC is not in negotiations to have a weekly TV show on Comedy Central, but airing the infomercial on Comedy Central makes sense because the network does extremely well in the 18-to-49-year-old male demographic that is coveted by TV advertisers and is also the primary audience for MMA. Hosted by respected Showtime boxing analyst Al Bernstein, the 30-minute show will be called "From Spectacle to Sport" and will educate people about what MMA used to be and what it is today. It is not known if the infomercial will be mentioned by WWE announcers on Spike TV, but it certainly isn't out of the question given the UFC's friendly working relationship with the WWE. The air times for the "Spectacle to the Sport" show will be advertised in commercials that will air on numerous TV networks, including Fox, ESPN, and ESPN 2. Dana White also announced that the UFC is back on its way to pay-per-view in the United Kingdom. Though he couldn't reveal all of the details due to the fact that the deal isn't completely done yet, UFC 44 will be available on pay-per-view in London. Based on how well the London public responds to the event, the same British partner company will hopefully pick up future UFC events (starting with UFC 45) that would air throughout the UK on traditional PPV and also on closed-circuit TV in movie theaters. http://www.mmaweekly.com/this_week/news/3_tuesday.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JustJoe2k5 0 Report post Posted August 27, 2003 I already get a weekly UFC show on the Sunshine Network, don't watch it much though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
razazteca 0 Report post Posted August 27, 2003 How long did the UFC show last on Fox Sports Net, 3 or 4 weeks? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RavishingRickRudo 0 Report post Posted August 27, 2003 You should catch those UFC shows on the Sunshine network. They've shown some really great, acton-packed fights like Carter vs. Serra and Rizzo vs. Barnett (must-see's), and none of the fights that they show are boring. My only problem with them are that they need to be up-dated and don't really give the full scope of what the UFC is and was. Hopefully this thing on Spike TV will. UFC had a show on Fox Sports Net? I recall them showing a card (UFC 37.5 I believe) on the best damn sports... and hyping it up on said program, but I don't believe they had a show or a tv deal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RavishingRickRudo 0 Report post Posted August 27, 2003 I also believe the UFC drew significant ratings for said program. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
