THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
DirecTV subscribers, it's time to celebrate. After a six month squabble between the satellite carrier and the Comcast owned Versus network, Versus today announced that the two parties had come to an agreement and the network would be available today on the same programming package it was on when it was taken off DirecTV back in August of 2009.
The news comes just in time for this weekend's UFC on Versus event, as well as the upcoming NHL playoffs. While fans missed out on the WEC 47 event last weekend, the network will be available for the Brandon Vera vs. Jon Jones headlined card on Sunday, as well as future WEC events on the network.
"We are pleased that both sides were able to work out a satisfactory deal to bring this programming back to our customers," said Derek Chang, executive vice president, Content Strategy and Development, DIRECTV, in a press release Monday.
President of Versus Jamie Davis also commented on the news in the release, saying "We're excited that we were able to come to a fair agreement that puts VERSUS back in millions of homes with DIRECTV in time for our busy spring programming schedule. We look forward to super-serving these fans with NHL regular-season and playoff coverage, our first live UFC event and much more."
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the network will be available today, and may already be available in some homes as of the time of this writing.
Penick's Analysis: This is great news for NHL and MMA fans. There was news that a deal was imminent last week, but until this announcement had been made everything had been taken as rumor and speculation to that point. With the UFC and NHL playoffs coming to the network here soon it's no surprise that an agreement was finally reached, though considering Versus heads to the same place it was before one wonders what they had to give up to just get back onto DirecTV after the six month hiatus. Whatever the reason, it's a great thing for fans who have missed out on the great WEC cards that have come during that time period.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP