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Viacom, the parent company of Spike TV and MTV2, has purchased a majority stake in the mixed martial arts organization, according to a report from USA Today, and events will begin airing live on Spike TV beginning in 2013.
Spike TV still owns the rights to UFC's video library through the end of 2012, and with those rights they are not allowed to air live MMA content from any other organization. According to the report, the two sides were in talks for the better part of the last year and have finally come to a deal.
"It puts all of those cornerstones of ownership in place for us," said Bjorn Rebney of the deal. "Which is something that's been so seriously lacking in the MMA space with so many different companies, including Strikeforce and the IFL and Affliction and all the different failures that have occurred. ? It alleviates those issues."
Rebney will remain in charge of the promotion that he has built over the past three years. Bellator began it's first season on ESPN Deportes, and they've gone through ups and downs in different television deals since their beginning. The move to Spike TV in 2013 is sure to bring an increase in viewership and awareness for the brand, which has struggled to gain any real traction on MTV2. For Spike - who have wanted to stay in the MMA business despite losing the UFC - they now have their own property to work with as they see fit on the network.
"As we realized that our relationship with UFC was likely to come to an end, our Viacom mergers and acquisitions folks, and us, started to have conversations with MTV2 about getting invested in a mixed martial arts promotion and become owners as opposed to renters," said Kevin Kay, President of Spike TV. "You're building value in something that you own, and you own it for the long term. You're not in a constant state of negotiation."
"The tournament format (is), we think, a great way to get the audience invested in the fighters as personalities, as characters. I think we can help, with the expertise we have in building fighters as fighters that people want to see and come back week to week."
Kay also revealed that next year's Bellator seasons on MTV2 will give them a chance to test out new ideas as to which night will work best for the promotion.
Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez expressed excitement over the possibilities for the promotion that this deal opens up, and sees this as a major move up for the fighters.
"We both grew together," Alvarez said. "I'm sort of peaking in my career, and it seems like so is Bellator... I was with a lot of promotions that failed, that flopped, and this is actually working. Everything's coming to fruition."
"I'm smiling ear-to-ear right now. I couldn't be any happier. Endorsements are hard to come by when you're on ESPN Deportes and these other smaller channels."
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Penick's Analysis: This is huge news for Bellator, and a great day for Bjorn Rebney who has successfully gotten Bellator into place to really continue on with some longevity. With new backing, Bellator no longer needs to worry about the investors that have brought them to this point wanting to get out before they got to where they needed to be. Will this make them a serious competitor to the UFC? Not in any real sense. They will compete for prospects, and there will be some fighters that don't make their way to the UFC because they'll be under Bellator's now-notorious contracts, but they're not going to be competition for viewers or pay-per-view dollars. They also won't be going after any of the UFC's top drawing stars, so they'll more than likely be allowed to operate without any type of concerted effort from the UFC to go after them. This will be a very good move for the organization, their fighters, and fans, and I'm excited to see what they can do on a larger network in 2013.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Bellator/article_10975.shtml
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