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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
In what comes as a bit of a surprise, Bellator announced on Tuesday that they have signed a three year television deal with MTV2 to air their events beginning in 2011.
The 12 week tournament format will continue with season four, which will begin in March of 2011.
"MTV2 is the perfect home for the intense mixed martial arts action of Bellator," said Eric Conte, SVP, Programming and Production, MTV2. "MMA is at the top of our audience's wish list, and partnering with Bellator to bring live events and specials to MTV2 made complete sense since our viewers are so hungry to see more MMA on-air."
"We are thrilled to partner with MTV2 which has such a strong audience of hard-to-reach young guys,” said Bjorn Rebney, Bellator founder and CEO. “With a timeslot on a prominent nationally-distributed cable network aimed at young men, we now have the perfect platform to showcase our exciting, action-packed tournaments and fighters.”
Penick's Analysis: This one was a curve ball. After the reports of FX being the new home came out last week, it was simply being held as a foregone conclusion that we were waiting for a TV deal. They have a chance to reach a bit of a younger audience with MTV2, and perhaps to help hook a new audience of MMA fans there, but still, the important fact is that they will have a live timeslot that will not be preempted. This is very good news for Bellator, though.
UPDATE: Two potentially negative aspects of this news are the fact that MTV2 is available in less homes than FSN, and MTV2 is not available as an HD channel for most cable and satellite providers in the country. However, with being aired live on a weekly basis, and having three special events airing between seasons to keep people busy and Bellator visible year round, these are tradeoffs they are apparently willing to take.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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