By Chamatkar Sandhu
On Saturday night the UFC aired on channel 5 in the UK which is a free to air network. For the first time ever the UFC was available in every single home in the UK for free albeit just the main card. There were some issues including a ten minute tape delay but perhaps a lot of people don’t realise this was a one off deal which could explain some technical difficulties on working with various production teams as well as the lack of promotion in the lead up to UFC’s Fight Night London card. So how many people watched?
Per British TV analyst website, DigitalSpy.com, here is how it broke down:
Over on Channel 5, 591k (3.01%) tuned in to see Alexander Gustafsson take on Jimi Manuwa in UFC Fight Night Live from 9pm. Earlier in the evening, NCIS attracted 513k (2.27%) and 629k (2.73%) at 7pm and 8pm respectively.
Now these figures are poor when compared to how other TV shows did in the same timeslot on other channels but looking at the bigger picture coupled with the 100,000 viewers which typically tune in to BT Sport to watch the UFC that’s an estimated viewership of around 700,000 which is the most viewers for a UFC event on UK television ever.
For a full breakdown of the TV ratings on Saturday night visit:
How do these numbers compare to bouts of boxing that channel 5 air as well as previous MMA promotions?
Boxing:
Tyson Fury vs Dereck Chisora (July, 2011)
2.26 million viewers and peaked at 2.9 million
Tyson Fury vs Kevin Johnson (December, 2012)
1.25 million viewers and peaked at 1.63 million
Tyson Fury vs Steve Cunningham (April 2013) 1.5 million viewers
Kid Galahad vs James Dickens (September 2013) 858,000 viewers
So it’s clear even without big marquee names the British public still have an affinity to tune into a big night of boxing action.
MMA:
When BAMMA made its TV debut (also on channel 5) back in 2012 with BAMMA 6 headlined by Tom Watson vs Ninja Rua they drew 500,000 viewers.
I don’t remember seeing any advertising for the UFC debut on channel 5, not on newspapers, on the radio on the internet or even on channel 5 itself and perhaps that goes back to my original point, the fact this was a one off deal only. One can only assume that if Channel 5 and the UFC had struck a multi-event deal channel 5 would increase it’s marketing budget to make its target demographic (18-35 males) more aware. Perhaps this was just testing the waters both with the channel and the promotion.
The bottom line is from the UFC’s perspective more people watched it’s brand, it’s fighters and got some insight into MMA for the very first time which can only be a good thing. Yes it pales in comparison to boxing but that has more to do with mainstream acceptance of the sport of mixed martial arts than anything else in the UK. It was great to see some mainstream media at the event on Saturday night. Now only if they can continue their coverage full time we can start to build more momentum for future MMA events to be broadcast on national television.
Follow me on Twitter @ChamatkarSandhu
