Luke
02-05-2009, 07:22 PM
Strikeforce and Showtime Networks have agreed to a three-year broadcast deal that will see mixed martial arts return to the premium pay channel by April.
The much-coveted deal, which has been quietly negotiated since December, proposes 8 to 10 live events from the popular San Jose, Calif., promotion in the next 36 months, insiders have told Sherdog.com. The agreement also opens the door for four primetime specials on CBS, which owns the Showtime channels and had much success with MMA though EliteXC in a Saturday night primetime slot.
Showtime is expected to announce some form of the agreement late Thursday, while Sherdog.com has learned that the first Strikeforce event under the new arrangement will likely take place on April 11.
CBS Primetime Senior Executive Vice President Kelly Kahl would not comment on any potential timetable to springboard MMA back onto the major network, though it is widely believed that CBS’s interest in the sport remains steadfast.
CBS enjoyed strong ratings with the three live EliteXC “Saturday Night Fights” installments it hosted in 2008 with peak audiences in the six million viewers range. The network also saw substantial gains in its Saturday primetime slot with the coveted young male demographics, including a 127-percent rise in men 18-49 and a whopping 271-percent jump in men 18-34 for the first event on May 31.
A follow-up event on July 26 fell 43 percent in viewership without stars Gina Carano and Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson to anchor the card but rebounded back up to 4.84 million viewers during its Oct. 4 affair, which saw the iconic Slice fall in 15 seconds to last-minute replacement Seth Petruzelli.
However, the much-troubled EliteXC promotion, owned by the Los Angeles corporation Pro Elite, closed its doors on Oct. 20 buried underneath nearly $55 million in debt, with upwards of a reported $20 million of that owed to Showtime.
Understandably, CBS executives were said to have been gun-shy inking a new deal with another MMA outlet. But the burgeoning relationship with Showtime and Scott Coker, who owns and operates Strikeforce with other investors, is being viewed as the first step in bringing the fast-growing sport back to the masses.
Coker, who has cultivated a fervent kickboxing fan base in the South Bay area since 1985 and promoted California’s first regulated MMA event at San Jose’s HP Pavilion in March 2006 before a record 18,265 spectators, was said to have been selected for his “irreproachable” reputation in the combat sports arena. It is said Coker bested four to five other outlets that bid on the deal as well. The UFC, as well as various incarnations organized by Pro Elite executives in the wake of its stalling, also threw their hats in the ring.
As part of an assets purchase deal announced by Strikeforce on Thursday, Coker and company have acquired rights to Pro Elite’s video library and other past footage. The ShoXC brand may still prove viable with the deal, although it appears the EliteXC name will no longer be used.
The much-coveted deal, which has been quietly negotiated since December, proposes 8 to 10 live events from the popular San Jose, Calif., promotion in the next 36 months, insiders have told Sherdog.com. The agreement also opens the door for four primetime specials on CBS, which owns the Showtime channels and had much success with MMA though EliteXC in a Saturday night primetime slot.
Showtime is expected to announce some form of the agreement late Thursday, while Sherdog.com has learned that the first Strikeforce event under the new arrangement will likely take place on April 11.
CBS Primetime Senior Executive Vice President Kelly Kahl would not comment on any potential timetable to springboard MMA back onto the major network, though it is widely believed that CBS’s interest in the sport remains steadfast.
CBS enjoyed strong ratings with the three live EliteXC “Saturday Night Fights” installments it hosted in 2008 with peak audiences in the six million viewers range. The network also saw substantial gains in its Saturday primetime slot with the coveted young male demographics, including a 127-percent rise in men 18-49 and a whopping 271-percent jump in men 18-34 for the first event on May 31.
A follow-up event on July 26 fell 43 percent in viewership without stars Gina Carano and Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson to anchor the card but rebounded back up to 4.84 million viewers during its Oct. 4 affair, which saw the iconic Slice fall in 15 seconds to last-minute replacement Seth Petruzelli.
However, the much-troubled EliteXC promotion, owned by the Los Angeles corporation Pro Elite, closed its doors on Oct. 20 buried underneath nearly $55 million in debt, with upwards of a reported $20 million of that owed to Showtime.
Understandably, CBS executives were said to have been gun-shy inking a new deal with another MMA outlet. But the burgeoning relationship with Showtime and Scott Coker, who owns and operates Strikeforce with other investors, is being viewed as the first step in bringing the fast-growing sport back to the masses.
Coker, who has cultivated a fervent kickboxing fan base in the South Bay area since 1985 and promoted California’s first regulated MMA event at San Jose’s HP Pavilion in March 2006 before a record 18,265 spectators, was said to have been selected for his “irreproachable” reputation in the combat sports arena. It is said Coker bested four to five other outlets that bid on the deal as well. The UFC, as well as various incarnations organized by Pro Elite executives in the wake of its stalling, also threw their hats in the ring.
As part of an assets purchase deal announced by Strikeforce on Thursday, Coker and company have acquired rights to Pro Elite’s video library and other past footage. The ShoXC brand may still prove viable with the deal, although it appears the EliteXC name will no longer be used.