UFC 125 "UFC Prelims" draws 829,000 viewers on ION Television
While many MMA fans had little knowledge of ION Television before the network partnered with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, more than three-quarters-of-a-million viewers were able to find the channel this past weekend.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today learned from industry sources that this past weekend's "UFC Prelims" special, which featured a trio of live fights from "UFC 125: Resolution," drew an average of 829,000 viewers.
This past weekend's one-hour special marked the UFC's debut on ION Television. Past editions of "UFC Prelims" have aired on Spike TV and UFC.com.
Prior to UFC 125, the most recent edition of "UFC Prelims" to air on TV was "UFC 123: Rampage vs. Machida," which drew 1.5 million viewers. The figures for this past weekend's event mark a 44 percent decrease from the November broadcast of UFC 123.
UFC 124 also featured two fights streaming live on UFC.com, though the promotion did not reveal the number of online viewers that tuned in.
UFC officials have yet to announce if the promotion will continue to provide content to ION Television, which was launched in 1998 as PAX TV, was rebranded as Ion Television in 2007. The channel was also known as i from 2005 to 2007.
The "UFC Prelims" special for UFC 125 featured three exciting contests as Jeremy Stephens knocked out Marcus Davis, Dustin Poirier earned a one-sided decision over Josh Grispi, and Brad Tavares earned a first-round TKO win over Phil Baroni.
To date, the UFC has aired 14 "UFC Prelims" broadcasts. The top six "UFC Prelims" specials in terms of viewership all aired in 2010.
The full list of "UFC Prelims" broadcasts and ratings, which has traditionally aired on Spike TV, as compiled by MMAjunkie.com includes:
* 1) UFC 109 (February 2010): 1.7 million viewers
* 2) UFC 114 (May 2010): 1.6 million viewers
* 3) UFC 108 (January 2010): 1.5 million viewers
* 3) UFC 121 (October 2010): 1.5 million viewers
* 3) UFC 123 (November 2010): 1.5 million viewers
* 6) UFC 104 (October 2009): 1.4 million viewers
* 6) UFC 103 (September 2009): 1.4 million viewers
* 8) UFC 119 (September 2010): 1.3 million viewers
* 8) UFC 116 (July 2010): 1.3 million viewers
* 8) UFC 115 (June 2010): 1.3 million viewers
* 8) UFC 106 (November 2009): 1.3 million viewers
* 12) UFC 111 (March 2010): 1.2 million viewers
* 13) UFC 118 (August 2010): 1.1 million viewers
* 14) UFC 125 (January 2011): 829,000 viewers*
* - Aired on ION Television
The UFC first offered a PPV teaser broadcast for UFC 103, when the UFC went head-to-head with a boxing PPV broadcast featuring Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez. The specials proved effective enough at generating last-minute PPV buys that officials from the UFC and the organization's longtime cable partner decided to make them a regular offering.
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