NBC and Strikeforce Close to Airing Live Fights
From MMAjunkie.com:
Strikeforce is in advanced discussions with NBC to bring live fights to the Peacock Network.
The popular West Coast promotion struck a paid programming deal with NBC earlier this year, featuring 30-minute, weekly shows with fights from past Strikeforce events. Extending that agreement to live, primetime shows would be a major boast for Strikeforce as it looks to generate additional exposure for its brand and expand nationally.
"It's been signed off on at many levels (at NBC) already, and I think we're at the final stages," Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "By the first quarter of '09, we'll probably have some fights going on. We would need that time frame any way to book the right fights and do it properly."
Serious talks between Strikeforce and the network have been ongoing for the past couple of months, and Coker says the dialogue is continuing. Approval at the senior most programming levels at NBC is the only hurdle left to clear to bring live MMA to a second U.S. broadcast network. "
The report also states that the first event would most likely be headlined by Cung Le. Le is currently filming a movie, so he would not be available to fight until sometime after March.
This is definitely great news coming after the decent numbers that EliteXC on CBS pulled. You would have to think that the UFC is watching this to see what happens. I definitely think that the UFC would be a good fit with FOX. FOX tends to be a little bit looser than the other networks. I just hope that all this MMA on network TV won't be overexposure for the casual fan. Regardless, MMA is definitely deserving of the spotlight.
Assist: FightTicker.com member KingLev
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Comments
Good post H55. You are right
Good post H55. You are right about Fox they would offer less restrictions and wouldn't cower over a little blood like CBS did on their first card. Strikeforce is an ecellent promotion and Scott Coker is well respected by fighters and other promoters including Dana White. I just hope that Dana doesn't try and sabotage a Strikeforce show on NBC with counter programming on Spike. Strikeforce deserves this opportunity to shine.
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Good point Lev. We'll find
Good point Lev. We'll find out if Dana has a limit to his respect for Coker.
Here's a crazy scenario: Dana actually helps Strikeforce in order to sabotage EliteXC...