Legend Fighting Championship World-Class Mixed Martial Arts Events Stream Online for Free on DramaFever and Hulu in US, Canadian and Latin America
NEW YORK / HONG KONG [January 15, 2013] – For the first time, millions of sports fans in the USA, Canada and Latin America will be able to watch some of the Asia-Pacific’s most elite mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters compete for free and online. New York-based DramaFever and Hong Kong-based Legend Fighting Championship have teamed up to make Legend’s Asia-Pacific Championship MMA events available online exclusively through DramaFever, starting January 15. Fans can catch up with all previously televised fights in high-definition as originally televised on Pay-Per-View, online and for free.
All past and future Legend events will be streamed in their entirety on both DramaFever.com and a dedicated Legend-Hulu channel, which DramaFever is creating as part of a recent content deal. On DramaFever.com, each event will appear as its own series, giving viewers the option to watch the whole event, individual bouts, or highlights. Viewers will find information about the events and fighters in both English and Spanish via a bilingual player. Future features are being added to enable deeper fan engagement, such as adding photos and comments to videos or athlete pages.
Backed by AMC Networks, Bertelsmann, co-founders of YouTube and Machinima, MK Capital, and NALA Investments (the investment vehicle for the family that created Univision and Televisa), DramaFever’s global digital entertainment platform specializes in primetime television from around the world. DramaFever co-founder Suk Park went to Columbia Business School with the co-founders of Legend, Michael Haskamp and Chris Pollak, who have created the largest and most popular international MMA competition in the Asia-Pacific region.
“More Enter the Dragon than Mortal Kombat-style bloody slugfests, the Legend fights have very broad appeal, reaching the merely curious about MMA, true martial artists, and Bruce Lee fans, as well as hardcore fans, we hope,” said Suk Park, co-founder of DramaFever. “By making the fights available online and for free, on demand, US viewers and MMA fans gain some variety and a world-class, yet affordable, alternative to relatively limited choices that exist now.”
Co-founder of Legend, Chris Pollak added, “Sports fans will discover masters in non-traditional MMA fighting styles such as Sanda (“freestyle kung fu”), Wushu, and Shuaijiao,, as well as the styles you see all the time in MMA, such as Muay thai, Brazilian Jiujitsu, boxing, and wrestling.”
Starting January 15, DramaFever will stream over 17 hours of fight entertainment not previously available online to US consumers. The events include plenty of drama and reasons to root for the fighters’ personal stories, the countries they represent and their fighting styles. Each event is approximately two hours in length (110 minutes), featuring current champions from South Korea, Japan, Mongolia and China, and 10 more Asia-Pacific countries. In 2013, Legend Fighting Championship plans to hold six events, with a new event televised and then distributed over DramaFever every two months. Viewers will find Legend featured prominently on the main page of DramaFever.com, or can use the Search function anytime. Existing and future Legend events will also be added to a Legend Fighting Championship Collection on DramaFever.com.
Link to DramaFever-Legend: http://www.dramafever.com/collections/legend-fc
Registered viewers can watch free, unlimited, ad-supported video, while benefiting from helpful features. Premium subscribers can watch without interruptions and in high-definition. Premium subscriptions are $9.99 per month, with package discounts available. Mobile and Web TV apps are also free.
ABOUT DRAMAFEVER
Established in 2009, New York-based DramaFever, an online video platform for the world’s best entertainment available on the web, serves mainstream U.S., Canadian and Latin America audiences. DramaFever’s ever-expanding library represents one of the most comprehensive and current U.S. collections of licensed Asian and Spanish-language primetime TV available online. All shows are professionally translated and available for free in high quality. Partners include Hulu and Netflix and over 63 of the world’s top content producers. Curated selections also appear on iTunes. As of January 2013, DramaFever serves over 3 million viewers via a new bilingual player on DramaFever.com, partner streaming services, as well as using mobile and web TV apps. To learn more, visit www.DramaFever.com.
ABOUT LEGEND FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP
Legend Fighting Championship (Legend) is the Asia-Pacific Championship of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Based in Hong Kong, Legend invites professional martial artists from throughout China and the Asia-Pacific region to compete in a freestyle tournament using interdisciplinary martial arts skills including sanda, wushu, jiujitsu, muay thai, boxing, and wrestling in supervised matches under a strict set of rules designed to promote athlete safety. Events are produced for live international television, in both English and Mandarin Chinese, and each program incorporates and celebrates the region’s unique history, cultures, and thousands of years of martial arts traditions. Legend is committed to promoting the sport of mixed martial arts in the Asia-Pacific, to supporting and cultivating its athletes, and to providing exceptional entertainment to a broad audience. Legend is backed by CA Media, the Asia-Pacific investment vehicle of the Chernin Group, and Diamond Ridge Ventures. See www.legendfc.com for more.