Bellator Signs 3-Year TV Deal To Air MMA on MTV2

Bellator Fighting Championships on Tuesday announced its new television partner… MTV2. Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney and Eric Conte, SVP, Programming and Production, MTV2, made the joint announcement. The three-year deal will commence in 2011.

The naming of MTV2 as its new television partner comes as a bit of a surprise. Recent signs had all pointed to Bellator closing in on a deal to air on Fox’s FX channel for 2011.

Instead, MTV2 will telecast two seasons of Bellator’s 12-week tournament format, along with a collection of unspecified special feature events. The first tournament will premiere in March 2011, but few other details were revealed.

While airing on Fox Sports Net in 2010, Bellator was consistently pre-empted for other programming. They should have no such problem on MTV2, which is set to air the two 2011 tournaments live.

“MTV2 is the perfect home for the intense mixed martial arts action of Bellator,” Eric Conte, SVP, Programming and Production, MTV2. “MMA is at the top of our audience’s wish list, and partnering with Bellator to bring live events and specials to MTV2 made complete sense since our viewers are so hungry to see more MMA on-air.”

“We are thrilled to partner with MTV2 which has such a strong audience of hard-to-reach young guys,” said Rebney. “With a timeslot on a prominent nationally-distributed cable network aimed at young men, we now have the perfect platform to showcase our exciting, action-packed tournaments and fighters.”