Despite low ratings for last Saturday’s “Unfinished Business” event on CBS, Elite XC has still managed to work its way onto another television network, teaming up with cable sports giant, Fox Sports Network (FSN).
This deal has actually been in the works for a while now.
The plan is for FSN to air four one-hour long mixed martial arts specials that contain past fight footage from the various MMA promotions under Pro Elite umbrella. That list includes, Cage Rage, Icon Sport, King of the Cage and others. Pro Elite owns the rights to some of the footage from Rumble on the Rock and other top organizations, too.
This is similar to the Strikeforce and NBC deal, which has produced very encouraging ratings. Both shows are pretty much modeled after UFC “Unleashed,” which is also a success on Spike TV.
Elite XC is banking on its extensive database of fight footage, including early fights in the career’s of UFC champion Anderson Silva, WEC champion Urijah Faber, and many more world class mixed martial artists to help bring in solid ratings for FSN — just like Strikeforce and the UFC have done for NBC and Spike, respectively.
This is another step in the right direction for Elite XC. The promotion realizes the time is now for them. It needs to continue to build its fan base to ensure future success. And the exposure this show will provide should be a great source for that.
Here’s a snip from former CEO of Elite XC, Doug DeLuca:
“Our mission from day one with ProElite and EliteXC has been to showcase the incredible talent and excitement of our fighters and illustrate that the appetite of the growing legions of MMA fans can’t be satisfied by merely a single organization. FSN has a well-known history of success with MMA, and this partnership is another important step in developing an even stronger fan base for the exciting brand of MMA that ProElite delivers through EliteXC and our other organizations like King of the Cage, Cage Rage, Icon Sport, and Rumble on the Rock.”
Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg will host the program, which as of right now is scheduled to air on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET, beginning sometime in mid September.
9 Comments »
XC will sink like the titanic real soon…
I can understand the strategy of showing early Anderson Silva and Urijah Faber fights; however, I could see that backfiring in Pro Elite’s face. Rather than draw people to Elite XC, it might just reinforce the UFC’s dominance (and WEC’s advancement) right now. I could see new viewers liking what they see and then just watch Silva or Faber on Zuffa sponsored programing rather than Pro Elite shows.
I agree with you. I see it bolstering the number of viewers for UFC and WEC. They will be the ones who benefit from this. Just as well as far as I’m concerned, XC is a pimple in my opinion.
i dont think elite is gonna be around much longer either, but this does seem interesting nonetheless. im there! i watched the old pride highlight shows about a thousand times, so i might as well watch this.
EliteXC will be out of business in 6 months. Four one hour highlight shows.
Not significant in the least in the big picture.
oldies but goodies. some of those fights are hard to find on the internet. landing on Penn vs Gomi while channel surfing would be a pleasant surpise.
yes sir!
Fox Sports Net sucks. The local fsn affiliates will repeatedly preempt the mma show for the lamest of reasons - Local college basketball coverage of a local team that nobody cares about, repeats of nfl exhibition games, whatever.
I got the sports package that has like 50 diffenent FSN’s!!!
The more MMA that is on television, the better