UFC President Dana White spoke at the ’14 NeuLion Sports Media & Technology Conference this week and touched on a number of subjects, including the company’s declining Pay-Per-View numbers. While White admitted the numbers were down, he also said there’s a lot more to the UFC business model than PPV.
From Sports Business Daily:
“This year, yeah, pay-per-view numbers are down, but this business isn’t what everybody thinks it is,” he said. “Trust me, we love pay- per-view. When these big events happen, the pay-per-view numbers will come back. But we’re much more than a pay-per-view company.” White highlighted UFC’s broadcast deal with Fox, the popularity of the reality show, “The Ultimate Fighter,” and the growth of the brand in global markets — including the announcement of a forthcoming fight in a 45,000-seat arena in Sweden — as signs of his company’s health. “Every time we go into these other countries, it just keeps building more and more momentum,” he said. “We hear all of this negative stuff here in the United States because they don’t get the whole global strategy. … We’re killing it in all of these other countries.”
White also commented on if they would ever consider buying Bellator:
“There’s just no value there. … If they called me today and they wanted me to do a deal with those guys, there’s literally no contracts over there that I would be interested in.”
C’mon Dana, you know you want Tito back!
Anyone from Bellator you think should be in the UFC? What about Paul Daley?
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