Penick's Take
PENICK: Despite ratings declines on Spike TV, the UFC still in the midst of most successful year in their history
Oct 4, 2010 - 11:30:26 PM PENICK: Despite ratings declines on Spike TV, the UFC still in the midst of most successful year in their history

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The UFC set a pay-per-view record in 2009 by garnering the most domestic pay-per-view purchases of any company in a single year. In 2010, they're on pace to well surpass last year's numbers.

There have been some drops, however, in both pay-per-view buys and ratings on Spike TV during the year that have led to some discussion about the state of the organization. But where the UFC has faltered by offering some less than optimal events during the year, the facts show the organization is currently doing better than ever.

The year began with a really shaky stretch, as the first couple of events were hampered by injuries that led to Rashad Evans and Randy Couture headlining against Thiago Silva and Mark Coleman, respectively. Then, in February, the UFC hit a new low in buys for an overseas event since 2007 when UFC 110 in Australia failed to reach 250,000 buys.

But since that event in February, the UFC ran eight straight pay-per-view events that surpassed 500,000 buys, an incredibly successful stretch that came to an end with another drop with last month's UFC 119. Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer is reporting that the early trending data for that event has it pegged at 275,000, making it the lowest U.S. show since UFC 109 on Super Bowl weekend.

While that significant downturn, along with underperforming events in August, may be a sign of concern, one need look no further than this month's UFC 121 event to see that there is still plenty of interest in the UFC. The Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez event is almost a lock to surpass a million buys, and the UFC is attempting to ensure that even further with the UFC Primetime specials that begin this week.

The ratings decline on Spike TV, as laid out by MMAPayout.com, does, however, show an area where the UFC needs to improve. The average rating for events on the network have seriously declined in 2010, but it's not the overexposure that has led to the drop. The overall drawing power on Spike TV cards has been much lower than in 2008 or 2009, and the ratings for the events have reflected that.

The pay-per-view numbers show that the good fight cards, with solid names and promotion, will still sell and will still garner the interest of fans. In order to improve the viewership numbers on Spike TV, the organization needs to simply put some bigger named fighters into the key bouts on the Spike TV events. Having Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy on UFC 120 will help that event, even though it's tape delayed, do a better number on Spike.

The UFC can expect the same differences on pay-per-view events as well, and events headlined by the GSPs and Lesnars of the organization will of course garner a much higher return than those headlined by Frankie Edgar, Frank Mir and more.

But the organization has no reason to panic. To see just how well the UFC is doing, just look at this graph from Barron's that lays out the UFC's pay-per-view buys as compared to the WWE since 2007:



So while there is certainly room for improvement, specifically with the events the UFC is running on Spike TV, the organization is still in a very good place from a business perspective. If they can continue to develop some of their up and coming fighters into pay-per-view draws as well, they will continue to see good business throughout the next year as well.