The World Series of Fighting will be the next mixed martial arts promotion to find their way to network television with today’s announcement that the promotion has inked a new deal with NBC.
The new deal will bring as many as 14 events to NBC Sports Group networks (primarily NBCSN) but will also include shows on NBC itself.
Jason Floyd at The MMA Report stated that the NBC debut would be July 5 with a kickoff time of 4 p.m. ET. That timeslot is consistent with where NBC has placed the boxing events which have made their way to the network, seemingly looking to capture the pre-dinner and evening out crowd on Saturday evenings.
That date also puts the event on the same day as the UFC’s annual big 4th of July weekend card, so they won’t be able to gain much traction ahead of Lyoto Machida vs. Chris Weidman, Ronda Rousey vs. Alexis Davis and Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva. But they’re going to be off the air before the prelims kick off, so it shouldn’t really hurt their rating.
The most interesting part, again reported by Jason Floyd, is that it appears that the new deal continues to feature NBC paying no rights fee for the broadcasts. So it’s very, very cheap programming for the network.
Update: Danny Brener of World Series of Fighting contacted Bloody Elbow to state that the original report of no rights fees in the deal is inaccurate, and that the promotion will be receiving them as a part of the new agreement.