UFC Plans Weekly Live Streaming On Fight Pass Next Year
Either fight fans are going to like this news or they will hate it, but either way the UFC plans to be going in the direction of adding more live events. Why? Because UFC Fight Pass needs live content, according Eric Winter, who is the new Senior Vice President and General Manager for UFC Fight Pass, which he stated in a recent interview with MMA Fighting.com.
Winter stated that “live content rules” and that UFC Fight Pass needs to grow therefore that is what the UFC is looking to do in 2016. Winter plans to have weekly live events next year.
“I owe them a strategic plan for 2016,” Winter said. “I presented them my knowledge of Fight Pass to date and what I’m going to execute. It’s a little early to share, but you may hear some news in the upcoming days and the next week of some cool live streaming stuff. The goal is live streaming with kick ass technology.
“You could have the best content in the world, but it’s like you can create the best cars for the highway, but if the roads are filled with potholes, the car isn’t going to want to drive down our road.”
At the end of the day, UFC Fight Pass survives and makes money off of subscriptions, so the UFC is heading in the right direction with this plan, according to Winter.
“We know we have to offer more live streaming than our competition,” he said. “Not just our MMA competition, but any sports streaming business out there. We have to have live streaming not only on a weekly basis but a daily basis. That’s expected.”
“There are 40 UFC events next year, and every single one will have a Fight Pass component. Four of them will be Fight Pass exclusives. This year, we’ve got exclusive shows from Dublin (Oct. 24) and South Korea (Nov. 28). Maybe we’ll get another Fight Pass exclusive event by the end of the year.”
Winter was hired from Yahoo! to come in and take over the service thus a result in changing of direction for the UFC. Whenever someone comes in and replaces another human being, they have a plan and according to Winter, adding more events to the UFC calendar, which many think the UFC already runs too many events in 2015, is the way to create more revenue.
“I’m the first full-time employee of UFC Fight Pass,” he said. “The product has been stood up by ten men and women who were working on it in their spare time. This isn’t a 9-to-5 company. This is a seven-day-a-week organization.”
