Bellator MMA has been having some issues with its television ratings as of late. With that in mind, Bellator MMA President Scott Coker has come forward with his thoughts on the matter.
Bellator 197 hit a new low mark for the promotion’s ratings, since Coker’s placement as the new Bellator MMA president. On the Paramount network, the fight card hit a total of 242,000 viewers.
Speaking to MMA Fighting, Scott Coker offered an explanation for the promotion’s recent low ratings.
“They just switched, so they’re working on all this new, scripted programming and it’s gonna take time. But [MMA] is a business that’s gonna go up and down, up and down, up and down, based on who’s fighting. And actually how good of a job we do promoting. To me, there’s gonna be ups and downs in this business. I think we’re gonna have some big peaks and there’s gonna be some medium bites. That’s just the nature of this business.”
“I think that we broke through the clutter of all that. I think Fedor and Mir collectively did a great job promoting and I think our guys did a great job making sure that we did everything that we could to get eyeballs on this fight.
“If it wasn’t for the NBA playoffs and hockey playoffs, it think it would have been a much bigger number. But I’ll take 1.5 million.”
“I think the Chael fight with Fedor will do a big number. I think as far as the future with Paramount, the sky is the limit. We can grow this thing as big as we want.”
“HBO has their boxing, Showtime has their boxing and Paramount has their MMA. We just have to continue pounding it out there and doing a good job to promote it, because I feel like at the end of the day the network is gonna have some amazing shows and we’re gonna be a part of that.”
