Bellator has the numbers from its April 8 debut on Fox Sports Net, and they have reason to be pleased. The company says Bellator increased FSN’s Thursday night 25-54 male audience by 180 percent. Not exactly sure how they compute national ratings when FSN affiliates can choose different programming, but they share one local success story: 0.85 for a live airing on FSN Pittsburgh. Not bad for something with no obvious Pittsburgh tie-in.
The trick is getting more affiliates to show the fights live. That’s not easy during the overlap of baseball with the NBA and NHL playoffs, but judging from tonight’s broadcast times, distribution is getting better. More than half of FSN’s affiliates will show the fight card live, with others operating on reasonable (and, on the West Coast, helpful) delays.
Sadly, here in Northern Virginia, Comcast Sports Net is opting for a repeat of some sort of Best Damn Sports Show special and the World Poker Tour.
“In your area, we’ve gotten a lot of calls,” says Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, who worked out the deal with FSN after the promotion spent its first season on ESPN Deportes. Rebney sees the challenge of getting his fights to all affiliates but says the advantage of FSN is the broad reach to hard-core sports fans.
The fallback option is always the highlight show on NBC, which is broadcast Saturday night / Sunday morning at hours catering to insomniacs or DVRs. The good news is that the production values are terrific, with solid camera work and graphics guiding viewers through Bellator’s tournament set-up. (By way of disclaimer, I should say I’ve known and respected Bellator commentator Sean Wheelock for years from soccer circles, but the production values speak for themselves.)
So far this season, a couple of favorites such as UFC vet Roger Huerta have moved on without too much trouble. One upset in Rebney’s eyes was Pat Curran’s powerful knockout of Mike Ricci, a Georges St. Pierre protege, in the lightweight (155) tournament.
“A guy who fight most of his career at 145 took on Mike Ricci, who a lot of people said was the next GSP, and walked through him,” Rebney says.
Bellator drew attention with some viral videos of spectacular fight finishes last season. The official Curran-Ricci clip is climbing toward six-figure views.
The biggest controversy in Bellator was in the first fight for one of its big-name signings, Olympic wrestler Ben Askren. He got a tough draw against two-time UFC fighter Ryan Thomas and had to escape from a solid submission attempt before landing one of his own. With Thomas caught in a modified guillotine choke, referee Dave Smith asked for a sign that Thomas was OK. He didn’t get it, and he stopped the fight. Thomas, clearly unaffected, immediately popped up and protested.
The aftermath, as shown on the NBC highlights, had one hiccup for the broadcast team, with Timmy Smith saying the one “sign” fighters and referees use to communicate is the tapout. But referees always tell fighters in pre-fight instructions to give a sign when requested. Unconscious fighters can’t tap.
“The referee who made the call is not an inexperienced ref,” Rebney says. “I understand his reasoning. I understand what Ryan said because I talked to him for 15 minutes after the fight.”
The crowd was unhappy, though sportsmanship prevailed between the athletes. Thomas told the crowd how much he respects Askren and reminded them that the stoppage wasn’t his fault. Askren said Thomas deserves another chance.
Rebney said he would make Thomas the first alternate in case someone couldn’t continue in the tournament. He got his opportunity right away, thanks to that annoying volcano in Iceland that is keeping Europeans in Europe. Jim Wallhead couldn’t make the trip, so Thomas will fight again tonight against Jacob McClintock, who has won all six of his pro bouts in the first round.
Also on tonight’s card is another welterweight quarterfinal with Tyler Stinson against Dan Hornbuckle, whose last two fights were wins in Japan’s Sengoku circuit against Akihiro Gono and Nick Thompson.
Duresport.com 