My brother and I are huge fans of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). And we’ve been watching a lot of PRIDE and Ultimate Fighting Championship UFC fights on television.
Spike TV’s deal with UFC to air the Ultimate Fighter reality show as well as UFC Unleashed and Ultimate Fight Night Live is a brilliant move to garner that coveted 18-34 year old male demo, in the fastest growing sport out there today.
60 minutes had a good profile of MMA today, which got me to thinking about the vision and execution of former amateur boxer and current CEO of UFC Dana White. He and investors bought the UFC a number of years ago for $2 million. Today, it’s worth a huge deal more. White speculated on the broadcast today that it could be worth “maybe $100 million, maybe a billion.”
The broadcast also mentioned that pay-per-view alone draws 700,000 subscribers per event at $40 each. Harry and I have subscribed to a couple fights - most recently the Anderson Silva - Rich Franklin bout, (Silva’s Muay Thai clinch is insane!)
With 14 events per year, the pay-per-view revenue alone is $392 million. Never mind the revenue from the television contracts, advertisements, sponsorships and ticket sales.
While this type of entertainment may have been considered in the long tail years ago, it’s definitely moving into the mainstream today. If you’re in New York, and an avid UFC fan as well, drop me a line - and let’s find a good bar to watch the next match!
So - what untapped entrepreneurial ventures exist today, that offer the same possible path to fame and wealth?
3 responses so far ↓
Brian Breslin // Dec 12, 2006 at 3:58 am
Rob,
The real question now is, what do you think is the auxiliary market for MMA? How can people leverage this growing industry? Or are the bounties limited to those who own the octagon?
zenrob // Jan 1, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Brian - There are lots of bounties, I’d say. My brother and I watched the pay per view fight last week between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, streamed over the Internet and hooked up to my father’s tv in Connecticut. It was a blast. In this case, UFC got most of the revenue. They probably had to pay Akamai for some bandwidth and hosting services, but the revenue split is much better than what they’d have to pay the cable systems to use their distribution to get into the homes.
howard lindzon // Jan 2, 2007 at 4:09 am
wow - I remember the gracie brothers. I am getting old
happy new year
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