A full schedule of Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) events in April powered FUEL TV to its highest-rated and most-watched month in network history. During the month the network telecast four live UFC® Weigh-In and Postfight shows, one live UFC® Prelim show and one thrilling UFC® main card, in addition to many hours of shoulder programming. FUEL TV 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) this April compared to April 2012, according to figures released by Nielsen Media Research. For the second straight year, driven by UFC programming, FUEL TV is pacing first overall on HH percentage growth among all ad-supported cable networks.
The month ended very strong, with near record viewership set for the UFC® 159 Weigh-in and Postfight Shows. The live UFC® 159 Weigh-In Show on April 26 (4:00 PM ET) was the second highest-rated and fourth most-watched UFC weigh-in in network history, behind the record set for the UFC® 158 Weigh-in on March 15. It 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.
“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,” said Michael Mulvihill, Senior Vice President, Programming and Research, FOX Sports Media Group. “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 and was network’s second highest-rated and second most-watched postfight show ever, behind the postfight show for UFC® ON FUEL TV 8: SILVA VS. STANN on Saturday, March 2. The UFC® 159 Postfight 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 in April:
· On Saturday, April 13, The Ultimate Fighter FINALE PRELIMS ON FUEL TV delivered 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.
FUEL TV continues its live UFC® coverage on May 17 with the live Weigh-in Show for UFC® ON FX 8: BELFORT VS. ROCKHOLD. On Saturday, May 18, FUEL TV telecasts the live UFC® ON FX 8 PRELIMS and live UFC POSTFIGHT SHOW.
Source: FUEL TV press release, 5/2/13
