I assume WWE is on every week, so thats around 50 events. Fake fighting sold for $1B over 5 years, so $200MM per year.

WWE literally runs 5 hours of TV every week just on USA right now..they have other programming too with the potential for more.

WWE is just very safe, they are going to fill a lot of time and they have a set fan base that always watches. The WWE tv shows do better ratings than the MMA ones.

They are putting WWE on FOX every week plus I heard they'll put a replay on FS1 on the weekends. It's all about live inventory.

ESPN's tweet is a bit confusing given Sports Business Journals numbers, unless they are counting the ESPN+ cards as "televised" but not the PPV prelims. We'll probably have to wait for the press conference for the final numbers on events.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ESPN and the UFC have agreed to a new 5-year deal that will bring the mixed-martial arts league&#39;s entire rights package to ESPN. <a href="https://t.co/PBCI88q2bB">https://t.co/PBCI88q2bB</a></p>&mdash; ESPN (@espn) <a href="https://twitter.com/espn/status/999297692982489088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Conversely, ad rates are a lot cheaper on WWE shows because their audience is generally poor. The ratings aren't equal on a per viewer basis.

Wrestling fans have traditionally been seen by advertisers as stupid and cheap so the ad revenue is less despite having better ratings than other shows. We'll see how that changes with WWE now on network TV.

To be fair to WWE, their ratings are enormous enough that the network which buys it can still bring in a respectable amount of total dollars just on sheer volume. A scripted drama with car commercials might have an ad rate 9-10 times higher, but their production costs are so much more expensive and the number of viewers for those expensive ads are a lot lower. It led to odd situations in the past where the WWE reportedly got bumped for Dog Shows and Tennis because the few old people who watch that are wealthy, but they wont have that issue with FOX because they need the inventory and the WWE can fill space more cheaply than the UFC.

So overall the two deals sort of make sense if FOX needs a shitton of filler for their various networks and hundreds of hours, while ESPN may only want a few hours every other week but they need to sell expensive ads.

Well, let's head over to the fake wrestling thread on this board and see if they're stupid and cheap.

Since as Chiefs fans they primarily live in the Kansas and Missouri area, they probably represent an example of some of the wealthiest portions of WWE's demographics. Their ad rates would be a hell of a lot worse without that portion of their fans.

There's probably not a good PC way to put this, so I'll just say it. WWE's national demographic is very "ethnic". Their audience is a hell of a lot more black and hispanic than the UFC, and there's nothing wrong with that unless you are an advertiser.

One reason why Boxing is struggling is they have very similar demographics to the WWE, but they have UFC-level ratings. If you are going to have that demo, then you had better have millions of viewers.

The press release pretty much confirms what was reported earlier by Sports Business Journal. The only new details are that for the 10 main cards a year that are on ESPN networks, only the main card will be on TV, the prelims will be on ESPN+. PPV Prelims will also be on TV. If you are willing to pay an annual fee for ESPN+ you'll get a small break at $50.

https://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...fc-in-the-u-s/

God I hate supporting ESPN.

Really? I always assumed wrestling fans were mostly white dudes.

ROFL

GSP "confessed" to poisoning Nick Diaz

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Dana White is going to meet with Conor McGregor this weekend to discuss his future plans.

https://www.mmafighting.com/2018/5/2...gregors-future

How the **** did WWE end up making more money for their TV than the UFC over 5 years? They need to wake the **** up.