On August 19, 2017, UFC FightPass will digitally stream Polaris Professional Jiu-Jitsu Invitational 5, its 21st combat sports promotion to broadcast a live event via the OTT mma service. Polaris 5 will be the 195th combat sports event ever live-streamed on UFC FightPass and the 56th live-streamed event of 2017.

I have spent the last few weeks putting together research on the events live-streamed on UFC FightPass over the years. The research covers ever single UFC FightPass combat sports live-streamed event to date. It gives a bigger picture of the evolution of the OTT mma service and an idea of what the UFC is choosing to offer from the service priced at $9.99 a month.

Live-streamed events is, to many of the subscribers, the core feature of the service. Exactly the percentage of people or if this feature speaks to the majority of the UFC FightPass audience is truly unknown. However, the UFC has been pushing this feature far more than every other in terms of what they have been delivering.

BY THE NUMBERS

Per year:

2014 15 total live-streamed events 12 total UFC events broadcasted as UFC FightPass exclusives 3 events by Invicta FC 2 total promotions broadcasting live events on UFC FightPass

2015 26 total live-streamed events 6 total UFC events broadcasted as UFC FightPass exclusives 7 total promotions broadcasting live events on UFC FightPass UFC (6), Invicta FC (4), Shooto Brasil (7), Titan FC (2), Fight Nights Global (3), Pancrase (3), BRACE (1) 1 global promotion, 2 American promotions, 1 Brazilian promotion, 1 European/Russian promotion, 1 Japanese promotion, and 1 Australian promotion

2016 109 total live-streamed events 5 total UFC events broadcasted as UFC FightPass exclusives 19 total promotions broadcasting live events on UFC FightPass UFC (5), Invicta FC (6), Shooto Brasil (6), Titan FC (6), Fight Nights Global (14), Pancrase (8), BRACE (8), Victory FC (9), Cage Warriors FC (6), Glory Kickboxing (8), Combate Americas (11), Shooto Japan (3), EBI (5), XFO (1), Vale Tudo Japan (2), TechKREP FC (5), AlaskaFC (3), TKO (1), ProFC (1) 2 global promotions, 6 American promotions, 1 Brazilian promotion, 4 European/Russian promotions, 3 Japanese promotions, 1 Australian promotion, 1 Latin American promotion, and 1 Canadian promotion

2017 - AS OF AUGUST 19, 2O17 73 total live-streamed events and scheduled events 5 total UFC events broadcasted (and scheduled) as UFC FightPass exclusives 16 total promotions broadcasting live events on UFC FightPass UFC (5), Invicta FC (5), Titan FC (3), Fight Nights Global (5), Pancrase (6), BRACE (1), Victory FC (3), Cage Warriors FC (10), Glory Kickboxing (9), Combate Americas (2), Shooto Japan (1), EBI (2), AlaskaFC (7), TKO (5), DWTNCS (8), Polaris Pro Jiu Jitsu (1) Former live-streaming promotions not streaming this year: XFO, Vale Tudo Japan, TechKREP FC, ProFC, Shooto Brasil Promotions seemingly finished live-streaming this year: BRACE, Shooto Japan, Combate Americas 2 global promotions, 6 American promotions, 1 Brazilian promotion, 4 European/Russian promotions, 2 Japanese promotions, 1 Australian



Takeaways

ORIGINALLY ANNOUNCED AS A VISION FOR UFC FIGHTPASS, THE SERVICE IS NO LONGER THE MAIN HOST OF UFC EVENTS OUTSIDE OF NORTH AMERICA.

In 2014 back when the UFC was announcing UFC FightPass and its purpose, it broadcasted a now-astounding 12 entire events via the OTT mma service. Back then, UFC FightPass was intended to broadcast almost all of the UFC events on foreign soil so they could be in the local time zone. During that initial year, this purpose and vision for the service was proved to be true.

In 2014, the UFC held 18 events outside North America. 12 of those were on UFC FightPass. All six events outside North America not on UFC FightPass were events in Brazil on FS1 or PPV. Only one event in Brazil was on UFC FightPass for clear reasons. Brazil is a great market for FS1 and PPV events. In all, UFC FightPass was clearly for non-NA events in 2014.

Then in 2015, the UFC held 15 events outside North America. Only 5 of those were on UFC FightPass. The sixth UFC event exclusive to UFC FightPass that year was the first one in Las Vegas. Of the 10 foreign events not on UFC FightPass: one was in Sweden, five were in Brazil, one was in the Philippines, one was in Scotland, and one was in Japan.

In 2016, of the 12 events held outside North America, only three were entirely streamed on UFC FightPass. UFC FightPass DID host two additional events that year but they were in Las Vegas during International Fight Week and in Albany, NY following NY legalizing MMA. The purpose of UFC Fight Pass - at least in terms of how it serves the UFC - has clearly changed.

UFC FightPass has not hosted an entire UFC event in Brazil since 2014. It is looking at potentially hosting only non-NA UFC events again in 2017, but that will be only five (or possibly six) out of the planned 13 total non-NA UFC events.

WHY THE CHANGE FOR UFC FIGHTPASS? TWO ANSWERS: NEW OWNERSHIP AND OUTSIDE PROMOTIONS ON UFC FIGHTPASS.

On July 11, 2016, WME-IMG announced the purchase of the UFC. That brought major changes across the board. While changes to how the UFC was using UFC FightPass were already occurring in 2015 (like how it streamed all of the December 10th event featuring Paige VanZant in Las Vegas), the new ownership clearly had an impact on the UFC's overseas presence. In October of 2016, MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani wrote an article announcing that UFC would be firing "approximately 60-80 employees." These layoffs affected employees in Las Vegas and those in overseas offices. The new ownership has been reconfiguring how the UFC would make its business ventures on foreign soil. UFC FightPass would not be the sole vehicle for that.

Since 2014, UFC FightPass has been taking a very different turn. UFC has been curbing back on UFC events streamed in their entirety on UFC FightPass and has been bringing in outside combat sports promotions to live-stream their events. Since its inception, 21 different promotions have live-streamed events on UFC FightPass. This is both fantastic and has posed problems in my opinion in terms of reaching their audience.

Pros:

Live content!

Up-and-coming prospects being given an online audience when they otherwise would not

Promotions' libraries are coming to UFC FightPass

Cons:

Tidal wave of live-streamed outside events has gotten overwhelming Even hardcore fans don't watch MMA simply to watch two people fight Fans watch MMA to follow fighters and to see big fights

Multitude of fights from so many promotions has made it difficult to follow fighters or guarantee you will get quality fights

Not all deals with outside promotions have been officially announced to the fans

Details of deals have not been announced

Certain promotions have recently either stopped broadcasting events live on UFC FightPass or have been doing so inconsistently

Conclusions



UFC FightPass has finally become a great OTT mma service. I believe it can proudly call itself the "Netflix for fight fans." With its live programming and back catalogue of combat sports libraries that has not even been discussed here, it has grown into the service it originally strove to be.

However, it is failing to reach its audience in certain ways. By not announcing all deals with outside promotions or the details of those deals, its non-UFC live-streamed events feel overwhelming and haphazard. The UFC needs to do a better job of connecting events from outside promotions and providing spotlights on main event fighters for those events. Fans simply won't watch any MMA event presented to them, especially with the overwhelming number of UFC and Bellator events already out there.