Should The UFC Consider Putting PPVs On Fight Pass Instead?
The recent talk of UFC pay-per-view numbers has not really been in favor of the promotion, in fact it seems that fans may be running out of patience. With UFC 174 rumoured to have only hit around 100K, and 173 grabbing just over 200K; perhaps it is time for a change of plan. The common opinion is that PPV sections should include stacked fights, as well as title bout headliners.
The days of selling a million+ PPV buys with guys like Georges St-Pierre (for the moment), Chuck Lidell and Brock Lesnar are long gone. It is clear that the UFC is short on talent right now, through no fault of their own, and I’d call it fair to say that the promotion is having trouble building marquee fighters at the moment.
Recent numbers on pay-per-views, internet forums, and general chatter would indicate that something needs to go, or at least be moved. So what about putting PPVs on the Fight Pass network? The promotion’s digital platform, unveiled before UFC 168 last December, would seem the perfect place to re-brand the way big fights are delivered.
Maybe it’s the fact that the UFC is over-saturating the market with a small pool of fighters who will attract the required attention, possibly this is a backlash about having to pay for Fight Pass as well as PPVs, or maybe it’s just people starting to realise they are essentially gambling $60 every time the purchase the ‘premium’ Saturday night show.
I can honestly say that there have been at least five pay-per-views this year that have sent me to sleep before the main event, and it just never used to be like that. I’m not sure how exactly PPVs have come to this, but maybe a drop in price and a bit of repackaging is in order. How precisely that would come about, I don’t know.
My gut feeling is that the UFC will stick at it through these ‘tough’ times, in the hope that fans will undoubtedly pay to watch the return of Nick Diaz, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Cain Velasquez and Anthony Pettis. With Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva gone for the moment, and the aforementioned DL list, the question is how bad will it get before the UFC changes the PPV format?
