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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
For its entire existence, Bellator Fighting Championships, now Bellator MMA, has struggled to find a consistent time slot for their events. They started out online the spanish-language network ESPN Deportes airing their fights on tape delay. Then they moved to Thursdays on Fox Sports Net, but those events were marred by erratic tape delays from local affiliates with events never being at the same time from week to week.
After two seasons on FSN, they signed with MTV2 and moved to Friday nights for the next two years. But on a lower tiered network available in less homes, on a bad night filled with competition, they struggled with fluctuating ratings.
They moved back to Thursday nights in January when they made their debut on Spike TV, following TNA's Impact Wrestling program on the network. Now, another change is coming this summer, as they'll air on Wednesday nights for their summer series cards, along with their new reality program "Fight Master: Bellator MMA."
That move coincides with Impact Wrestling's move back to the 9-11PM time slot, leaving the future time slot of Bellator programming uncertain. However, in a comment made to MMAJunkie.com, an official from Spike TV says they haven't made any decisions on Bellator's future time slot, and that Wednesday nights are a summer move only.
"We haven't made any decision about moving it off Thursday," the official said. "We'll take a look at the time slot for September down the road, but right now, this is a change for the summer."
Furthermore, several reports state that Bellator have some Thursday dates already secured for their ninth season in the fall. If they remain on Wednesday nights, they'll once again be in direct competition with the UFC, which is moving weekly programming - including the Ultimate Fighter and occasional live fight nights - to Fox Sports 1 on Wednesday's beginning in August.
Penick's Analysis: I think it'd be a mistake to try going head to head with the UFC on Fox Sports 1, even if the UFC is going to be vulnerable early on a new night and a brand new network. The UFC brand is what carries, and they have the Fox platform and get the majority of media attention as it is. Taking Bellator off of its own night separate of competition isn't the wise move here, because though they might still pull strong ratings from those conditioned to watch Spike TV for MMA, that has already begun shifting. Given the new time slot for TNA, they could remain on Thursdays and just run early in the night, though it's rough for west coast viewership and events. They could move to Tuesdays and run unopposed now that The Ultimate Fighter won't be on FX that night. Or they could even try Fridays again with the UFC not running opposite them. Those options would be preferable to having them go head to head with the UFC.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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