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Featuring Ivan Trembow's Self-Important, Random Rants on Mixed Martial Arts, Video Games, Pro Wrestling, Television, Politics, Sports, and High-Quality Wool Socks Ivan's Blog Main Page Archives September 2002 November 2002 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 June 2003 October 2003 August 2004 October 2004 November 2004 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 October 2007 December 2007 January 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 |
Friday, July 07, 2006
Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC Expansion Includes Likely HBO Deal by Ivan Trembow Originally Published on MMAWeekly The UFC plans to run a very large amount of shows in 2007 and is very close to a television deal with HBO, the Wrestling Observer reports. The Observer reports that the negotiations between Zuffa and HBO are serious enough that a deal between the two sides is "likely" to be reached in the near future. The UFC shows on HBO would be in addition to all of the UFC shows on pay-per-view and Spike TV, and would not replace the PPV or Spike deals. The deal with HBO might also place limits on the speech of UFC president Dana White in terms of how negative he is allowed to be when talking about boxing in the future, according to the Observer. Additionally, the Observer reports that regardless of whether or not a deal is finalized between Zuffa and HBO, Zuffa is planning to run a staggering number of UFC shows in 2007. Zuffa's current plan for 2007 is to run "about eleven" UFC pay-per-view events (priced at $39.95 per event), plus 6-8 Spike TV events (which includes 4-6 Ultimate Fight Night events and the live finales of TUF 5 and TUF 6), plus an unspecified number of HBO events if a deal can be finalized. As it is, 2006 is scheduled to have nine UFC pay-per-view events by the time the year is over. After running four PPVs in the first half of 2006, Zuffa has PPVs planned for July, August, September, October, and November of 2006, which means that nine UFC PPVs will have taken place in 2006. The plan in 2007 is to expand that number to ten or eleven PPV events during the year. There will also be six or seven UFC events on Spike TV in 2006 by the time this year is over, and that number is poised to grow to as much as eight in 2007. In addition to the live finales of TUF 3 (in June) and TUF 4 (in November), 2006 will have also featured Ultimate Fight Night 3 in January, UFN 4 in April, UFN 5 in June, UFN 6 on August 17th, and possibly UFN 7 later in 2006. The plan for 2007, in addition to the TUF 5 and TUF 6 live finales, is to run somewhere between four and six Ultimate Fight Night events. As previously reported by MMAWeekly, the announcements about the TV deal between Spike TV and Zuffa touted Spike as being the "exclusive cable home of the UFC," but that technically means basic cable, which allows Zuffa to also strike a deal with a pay TV channel such as HBO. The UFC events on HBO would not replace those on Spike, but HBO would be very likely to get the biggest shows that Zuffa produces other than its own PPV shows. Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Send your feedback, questions, or hate mail to ivan@ivansblog.com If you're looking for all of the content from my other site, Master Gamer, you can find it here. |