EliteXC to CBS! UFC to HBO?
By Brandt DeLorenzo on Feb 27, 2008
Wow. In a surprise move that has potential to shake up the MMA industry, ProElite and EliteXC will soon be announcing a TV deal with Showtime owner, CBS. Kid Nate of Bloody Elbow beat me to punch by asking how did Gary Shaw beat Dana White to a television deal? I get a lot of flack for publicly denouncing White’s means of running the UFC (along with many many others, I might add), but this only solidifies my standpoint. Will White come out and publicly say that he had the ability to sign with CBS but he didn’t due to some outrageous comment? My guess is that he says they wanted too much control. Thanks to MMA Junkie for breaking the news! Sam Caplan, a ProElite writer who runs Five Ounces of Pain, has more commentary. It seems that everyone beat me to the good talking points already!
Does this mean that UFC will be going over to HBO? Well, if talks broke down in the past, White better hope he can revive them or risk being stuck with Spike TV for a little while. I’m sure he’s not a huge fan of HDNet right now.
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I’ve always felt the only way someone is gonna end up on HBO is if they do their PPV’s through HBO’s PPV arm, much like the Boxing Promoters do currently. The boxing guys can forgo some of the PPV money because they have more revenue streams (site fees from casiinos, int’l rights fees, etc) but the economics of MMA are somewhat more limited. Kind of a catch 22 situation for MMA appearing on HBO.
Well we learned from Adam Swift at MMA Payout that EliteXC has made a few sacrifices in order to get on prime time television. Was it all worth it? We shall soon find out.