Issue 038

June 2008

I’m not a big fan of TV. I’m one of those guys who is always ‘too busy’ to sit down and watch hours and hours of the idiot box, but I will make the effort to catch certain shows (usually ones involving dark humour, cartoons or documentaries about the latest attempt to find giant squid). I channel surf relentlessly, never stopping for more than a few seconds, searching and searching through the dozens of channels until I find something I like.  

The reason I can’t sit down and watch TV is because I don’t like to sit there and be told things. TV is a one-sided conversation, with the glowing tubes playing the role of teacher, narrator, entertainer and more. Anything that involves me being forced to listen to someone else’s point of view for longer than a few minutes without being able to ask questions drives me crazy. That’s why I spend far more time on the web than I do on the sofa.  

HDNet boss Mark Cuban has been keeping a blog for some time now. The billionaire businessman isn’t your Calvin Ayre-style rich guy who surrounds himself with hot women and jets around the world dodging local tax laws. Cuban is an intelligent and articulate entrepreneur who is very much in tune with the businesses he dabbles in, one of which is the dissemination of information. A line from one of his recent posts hit me like a hammer: “We always talk about entertainment on the web and on TV as being different because TV is lean back, and [the] Internet is lean forward.” Holy moly Mr Cuban, you just explained why I prefer the endless Internet over the very limited confines of the TV.  

I like going on the web because I can engage myself with all sorts of things – I can read websites, forums, posts, articles, blogs and more. I can look at pictures and watch video. At the same time, I can interact by producing my own content, share it and discuss it with other online users, all while flicking between simultaneous streams of info. I check my email as a podcast plays, and in the corner of my screen is a streaming fight video on mute. TV can’t compete.  

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, MMA has always heavily depended on the web. Whether it was keeping the sport alive during the dark days of no TV in the USA, to drawing in a new generation of fans in the early 2000s or even today’s explosion of live webcasts, radio show and more, the web has had the monopoly on all media related MMA content.  

But the balance is being challenged. Slow to act TV executives, their confidence boosted by letting someone else take the risks, have spotted that MMA is the next big thing, and all of a sudden it is surprisingly easy to find your MMA fix on TV instead of the Internet.  

The UFC were blazing the trail for regular MMA programming when they basically self-funded the first series of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). It became a massive international success but was still pretty much the only show available aside from pay-per-view live events.  

Since then, all has changed. You’ve got everything from TUF to T.O.P Army Fighter (Toughest Operational Personnel, a show that sees American servicemen fight MMA in an ongoing tournament format). The Black Entertainment network has just had their highest ever ratings with Iron Ring, a bizarre MMA show that sees rappers and boxers head up teams of MMA fighters, while ideas for TV shows involving Tito Ortiz setting up MMA fights to settle grudges between everyday people have been bandied about.  

From the worthwhile to the plain weird, MMA TV shows are a real mixed bag, but aside from the reality shows, fly-on-the-wall documentaries and so on, events are also becoming more popular. The IFL is all over Fox Sports Net and well into their third season, and EliteXC have just announced their biggest move to date – they host their first live event on CBS in the States at the end of May.  

To put this into perspective, CBS is huge. It is the most watched TV network in the USA, and reaches over 100 million people. That they will get to see live MMA on a Saturday night is amazing, and could spell big things for the future of MMA on TV. The heyday of boxing saw entire families crowded around their TV sets watching some of the biggest fights in history, and if MMA is indeed poised to enjoy the same level of exposure, then get ready, because things are going to go nuclear.  

Maybe it’s time for me to start watching a lot more TV.