UFC Gets a TV Deal in China
PRESS RELEASE — As one of the birthplaces of martial arts, China is rightfully considered to be hallowed ground for the warriors of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Today, UFC is pleased to announce a television deal with Inner Mongolia Television that will mark the first time in history UFC will be seen on TV in China, continuing the global expansion of the premier brand in mixed martial arts.
“Obviously China is a huge market and the Chinese understand the martial arts probably better than anyone else in the world. It’s a no brainer that UFC programming will be appreciated in China, and will become a big hit for the NMTV network,” said Dana White, UFC President.
Inner Mongolia Television, known as NMTV, is a network broadcast station available in 60 million households, with the potential to reach 240 million viewers throughout all the provinces of China. Starting this month, NMTV will air up to 16 hours of UFC programming per month, including the trademark shows The Ultimate Fighter, UFC Unleashed and UFC All Access, with an option to air recent UFC pay-per-view event telecasts.
With this deal, NMTV will air between one to four hours of UFC programming each week on Saturday and Sundays between 1:30 – 5:30pm local time, broadcast in languages specific to each province.
UFC television programming can be seen in over 100 countries and territories worldwide in 17 different languages. UFC is the largest pay-per-view content provider in the world and is the fastest growing sports organization in history.
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This is awesome! Go Global
I wonder how the reported birthplace of kung-fu, or as I believe they call it gung-fu, will receive things such as the ground and pound method of fighting?
Good question jcohl. I personally feel that the UFC will do well regardless, but to answer your question, Id say that the old timers or Kung fu masters if you will would be the only ones against it.
What a huge step forward for the UFC! It seems like once a month they accomplish something great, and continue to be lightyears ahead of all the other promotions.
Why doesn’t the UFC focus on getting huge in Europe where they have much more vested interests, ie. actual live events. The UFC is still having a hard time selling out in Europe, and now it seems they’re shifting their focus from one market and onto another without having a firm hold in either area.
60 million people in China seems incredibly small, around 4.5% of the population to be exact. So of that %4.5, who will actually be interested in the UFC? Yeah, in China they aren’t too fond of Japan, so the UFC is kind of the anti-Japan MMA organization, but MMA as a whole (in China at least) has a Japanese stigma attached to it. And yeah, the Chinese are incredibly knowledgeable of Martial Arts, but what do they know of Mixed Martial Arts? Maybe something here is getting lost in translation.
They’re not shifting their focus-They’re expanding their focus.
Can you imagine,say,selling 1 can of Pepsi to each of just that 4.5%?