I’ve been meaning to write a post griping about how difficult it has become to watch MMA. The UFC started its own subscription online streaming service and showed features and live fights on there, often a prelim to bigger fights. The fights were generally inconsequential so I didn’t mind that. Then my favorite MMA fighter jumped to Bellator, where he can make more money due to endorsement arrangements. A short-time later Bellator started showing its fights live exclusively on a new subscription streaming service, DAZN (pronounced Da Zone). The first time my fighter was up I called the sports bar where I watch MMA and asked if they would show the fight. They said sure. So went down there, ordered dinner and a tall beer and settled in for an evening of MMA fights. I asked the bartender to get the Bellator fights. Turns out not only did they not have DAZN, they didn’t even know how to find it. I still had to pay for dinner but he gave me the beer for free. I haven’t seen a live Bellator fight since they switched to DAZN. Then the UFC announced that ESPN would be showing the majority of UFC fights. But it turns out most of those fights are in ESPN+, its subscription streaming sports service. The first few on ESPN+ were meh, but by now several of those fights were of interest to me. And it turns out one was actually on ESPN2.. ESPN’s ads only mentioned the ESPN+ streaming, I would have watched had I known. So my ability to watch live MMA now is pretty much limited to pay-per-view at the sports bar. The New Yorker has a great article <https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/three-heavyweights-and-the-boxing-revolution> out now about how the boxing kingdom has been divided among providers. HBO gave up on boxing but others are pursuing, in part because there’s not just one but three interesting heavyweights. Heavyweights are what attract viewers. In the UFC, one of best fighters during the past decade was Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who was UFC flyweight champion from 2012 to 2018. Although one of the most talented fighters of his generation, he couldn’t generate ratings. UFC matches that feature only lighter weight fights don’t do well in the ratings. But fights with several heavyweight and light heavyweight fighters, even if they’re not the top fighters, do monster ratings. Getting back to boxing, all three heavyweights signed with different providers: Showtime, ESPN or DAZN. Two of them fight each other to a draw before they signed to separate kingdoms. Now it’s looking like they are not going to fight each other because no provider is willing to let its fighter go earn money for another provider. And there’s complaints ESPN will not feature boxers not under the ESPN tent. So in this case, it looks like combat sports are not be broadcasted, but rather narrowcasted and are being used maybe not so much to make a profit but establish a foothold to replace over-the-air, cable and satellite content providers. The New Yorker article is a good read. I think even non-sports fans would find it interesting. https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/three-heavyweights-and-the-boxing-revolution <https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/three-heavyweights-and-the-boxing-revolution?utm_brand=tny&mbid=social_twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned>
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yzX-PSg_Rsjx%2B%2B9OvrOCv5TD6nQFuv48KC6W6jYfLyV8w%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
