Penick's Take
PENICK: Polished WWE Network Highlights UFC's Rush To Market With Incomplete "UFC Fight Pass"
Jan 9, 2014 - 10:05:42 AM PENICK: Polished WWE Network Highlights UFC's Rush To Market With Incomplete "UFC Fight Pass"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Heading into 2014, the UFC announced a new digital network, UFC Fight Pass, which they hoped would provide fans a way to watch all of their expanded live programming internationally moving forward. In addition, they've promised access to their full fight library, original programming, past and future seasons of The Ultimate Fighter - both domestic and international versions of the show - and more.

It sounded great in theory. A way to access everything the UFC has to offer? The ability to watch every fight the UFC has in their library from other organizations as well? Additional events exclusive to the network? There's a lot there that can work, and that can provide fans their money's worth for $9.99 a month.

Unfortunately, the product at launch is "not ready for primetime," and that's a fact that was made absolutely clear with the announcement on Wednesday night of the WWE's similar - yet vastly superior - WWE Network.

Now, to get the argument out of the way right off the bat, yes, the UFC and WWE are two entirely different entities. They've got different core fan bases and offer a very different core product. However, they have many similarities and a lot of crossover fans, and indeed the UFC's current success is intrinsically tied to that crossover audience. It was the overrun from WWE's Monday Night Raw that brought new eyes to the sport through the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, and there remains a spiritual connection to pro wrestling in the beginnings of the sport in the first place.

With that out of the way, obviously two different audiences demand different approaches, but these two digital networks are essentially striving to offer similar things. Unfortunately for the UFC, they're behind in just about every area.

UFC Fight Pass has launched as an online only endeavor. It's only available by visiting UFC.TV, and many have already experienced issues attempting to stream video through the site on any device that isn't a laptop or desktop. Contrast that with the impending WWE Network, which will launch via the WWE app on Feb. 24 on almost every platform, save for Smart TVs and the Xbox One, and functionality for those platforms is expected by this summer.

The WWE has built a streaming service unlike any other with the help of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), an industry leading technology services company which is bringing "video streaming infrastructure, application development and operational support for reliable cross-platform distribution" for the WWE Network. Right out of the gate, fans can access almost the entire WWE library, including every pay-per-view event from the WWE, WCW, and ECW, with more than 1,500 hours of on demand content at launch.

This is available at the fingertips of any fan who wants to watch on an iPad, smart phone, or other tablet, along with anyone who wants to stream via the Apple TV, Roku, or Xbox 360 on their television. All at launch, for the same $9.99 that the UFC is charging to view content only on UFC.TV.

Additionally, the WWE Network will feature a 24/7 slate of programming for the App itself, which users can choose to watch as it airs or on demand at later times. The layout showcased in the WWE's presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday night is a streamlined, easy-to-navigate system that will get people to what they want, when they want.

That's far from the case with the UFC's layout, which currently makes it very difficult to navigate to specific fights or events, with a myriad of "collections" on the library page that don't give an intuitive feel to the consumer. And with the UFC claiming in their announcement that everything in the library would be available via the digital network, that hasn't seemed to be the case as of yet.

But even taking out the lack of advanced media integration for the UFC Fight Pass, they've been out-shined in one other major way: a WWE Network subscription provides access to all 12 of the WWE's monthly pay-per-view events at no additional charge, including their biggest show of the year, Wrestlemania.

It's the WWE's first serious step in moving away from the pay-per-view model, and though fans who don't want to take advantage of the Network's offerings can still order pay-per-view separately, the value is massive. To order all of their events during the year would total well over $600, and instead fans can access it all for just $120 in a calendar year.

On the UFC's end, that $120 charge gets you the library, and the international events airing in primetime in the host countries, which means air times in the U.S. early in the AM. But that's an additional $120 on top of the $715 before tax it will cost a fan to order each of the UFC's pay-per-view events in HD this year.

There are some key differences between the two when it comes to pay-per-view, of course. The WWE has seen lowered numbers on pay-per-view year in and year out recently, whereas the UFC remains, as a whole, the biggest pay-per-view entity in the game. The UFC still makes a significant amount of their money from pay-per-view offerings, while the WWE is hoping to nab between 800,000 and one million subscribers to break even on the network. Offering up that discount on pay-per-view events for the year is a significant way to do just that.

The UFC isn't at a point where they're going to be done with their pay-per-view business, and offering all of the events with the fight pass at $9.99 a month isn't a realistic endeavor for them. However, the option to have the Fight Pass features - full library access and all - along with all of the pay-per-view events, could be viable at a higher price point.

But that's still not something they can even toy with in the current iteration of UFC Fight Pass. In order for that to be an option that could even succeed - say at $15-30 a month to access each pay-per-view event plus the library - they need to have an infrastructure in place for fans to watch on their televisions.

It goes back to the biggest issue the UFC has with Fight Pass at launch: lack of mobile and device support. With no way to easily stream on televisions, the UFC can't draw those in their key demographic to utilize the Fight Pass on a consistent basis. For the vast majority, fans want to watch fights on TV, not on their computer screens.

Seeing how polished the WWE Network product looks, and how well integrated it's going to be across all platforms with the help of MLBAM, simply showcases how much the UFC rushed "Fight Pass" to launch. Instead of taking months to build up a product that could provide UFC fans what this new WWE Network will provide theirs, the UFC has only the bare bones in place with promises of more to come.

Given the two are the exact same price, it's more than fair to compare those types of differences in the execution. The UFC, which has prided itself on being "ahead of the curve" and innovative on things like this, comes off woefully behind this time around. It's unfortunate, because there is a ton of promise in what the UFC Fight Pass could be. The execution is lacking from the get go, and when they begin asking fans to begin paying on March 1, many won't. Provided they can cancel their account, of course.

Obviously the UFC can't come close to offering all of their pay-per-view events on a $9.99 a month subscription basis in 2014; it's not their time to move away from pay-per-view entirely. But there has to be more to Fight Pass if it's going to be a success for the UFC, and the WWE Network announcement simply showcases how far they have left to go.