Thanks to a whole slew of live UFC events in April, FUEL TV had its highest-rated and most-watched month in the network’s 10 year history.
During the month of April FUEL TV aired four live UFC Weigh-In and Postfight shows, one live UFC Prelim show and one UFC main card, in addition to shoulder programming such as Countdown shows, etc.
Compared to April 2012, the network was up +75% in household (HH) rating (0.07 HH vs. 0.04 HH), +67% in total viewers (30,000 vs. 18,000) and +56% among Men 18-49 (14,000 vs. 9,000), according to Nielsen Media Research numbers.
The live UFC 159 Weigh-In Show on April 26 averaged 109,000 total viewers and was up +167% in HH’s (0.24 HH vs. 0.09 HH), +160% in total viewers (109,000 total viewers vs. 42,000 total viewers) and +191% among Men 18-49 (64,000 vs. 22,000) compared to the 2012 Live UFC Weigh-In average.
Michael Mulvihill, Senior Vice President, Programming and Research, FOX Sports Media Group, commented:
“UFC events and programming have shown significant growth since debuting on FUEL TV last year, and that improvement is typified by the network’s performance in April. It’s encouraging to see major growth in the hard-to-reach Men 18-49 demographic that provides so much value to sports advertisers, especially as much of this programming prepares to migrate to FOX Sports 1 this summer.”
The live UFC 159 Postfight Show on April 27 (12:56 AM ET) was FUEL TV’s highest-rated and most-watched postfight show following a pay-per-view event. The show averaged 159,000 total viewers, with a 0.34 HH and 0.50 Men 18-49 rating. It was up +210% in HH’s, +218% in total viewers and +257% among Men 18-49 compared to the 2012 live UFC postfight show average.
Other benchmarks set for FUEL TV in April:
- On Saturday, April 13, The TUF 17 Finale Prelims on FUEL TV were the network’s most-watched and highest-rated UFC prelims of all time.
- It was FUEL TV’s second most-watched and second highest-rated program of all time.
- On Saturday, April 6, “UFC on FUEL TV 9: Mousasi vs. Latifi” was the second most-watched live UFC fight in both total viewers and in the target demo of M18-49.
- April 6 was the second-most watched day in network history behind the record set on March 2, 2013.
- For 2013 to date, FUEL TV is currently up +57% on HH (22,000 vs. 14,000), +50% on total viewers (27,000 vs. 18,000) and +44% among Men 18-49 (13,000 vs. 9,000) compared to the same period in 2012.
Live UFC action returns to FUEL TV on May 17 with the live Weigh-in Show for “UFC on FX 8: Belfort vs. Rockhold”. On Saturday, May 18, FUEL TV will broadcast the live UFC on FX 8 Prelims and live UFC Postfight Show.
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