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PPV (Wikipedia)

Media Man PPV Blog

WrestleMania is the traditional showcase PPV event from the WWE (Credit: WWE)

WWE: Shows

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TNA Wrestling 'Hard To Kill' wins Media Man 'Wrestling PPV Of The Month' - January 2024

WWE Royal Rumble 2024 has potential to be on of the top pro wrestling PPV's (PLEs) for 2024

Roman Reigns faces Randy Orton, AJ Styles and LA Knight in a Fatal Four-Way Match! (WWE.com)

PFL Champions vs Bellator Champions (February 24, 2024). PFL official website

AEW Revolution - Sting's Last Match. March 3, 2024 (AEW official website)

AEW Revolution 2024 (Wikipedia)

WWE

PLE's (Premium Live Events) 2024

Confirmed at time of publication

WWE Royal Rumble
January 27.
Tropicana Field
St. Petersburg, Florida

WWE Elimination Chamber: Perth
February 24.
Optus Stadium
Perth, Western Australia, Australia

WWE WrestleMania 40
April 6, April 7.
Lincoln Financial Field
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

WWE Backlash: France
May 4.
LDLC Arena
Décines-Charpieu, Greater Lyon, France

WWE Money in the Bank
July 6.
Scotiabank Arena
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

WWE Bash in Berlin
August 31.
Mercedes-Benz Arena
Berlin, Germany

Media Man: WWE, part of the TKO Group is riding a wave of momentium. Strike while the iron is hot. Global domination of the professional wrestling landscape continues. Premium Live Events is the newer term what previously were called Pay-Per-View (PPV) events. Under leadership of Nick Khan and Triple H WWE is powering ahead in a very much global major event direction, as well as presenting amazing storytelling and in-ring action, while the marketing, merch and media arms keep powering ahead, frequently breaking and smashing records. Back in our Optus TV PPV and Main Event TV collaboration work at Optus we always saw the potential of massive WWE growth, but certainly never saw it getting this big. - Greg Tingle, Media Man Group

Aussie Sports Pay-Per-View News

UFC - Foxtel Group Pay-Per-View Partnership

January 2024

Kayo Sports (part of The Foxtel Group), out of Australia, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
have officially commenced a new multi-year agreement from January 1, 2024, which sees Main Event
– available only on Kayo Sports and Foxtel – become the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View events down under in Australia aka Terror Australis! The readership knows we like media on the edge, so we've got to slip the Aussie slang in every now and again to suit the theme right.

The first Pay-Per-View (PPV) exclusive event will see UFC middleweight Champion Sean "Tarzan" Strickland make his virgin title defence against South African Dricus "Stillknocks" Du Plessis as they marquee UFC 297 direct from Toronto on January 21.

This partnership casts Main Event as the undisputed home of PPV in Australia, with a prized tradition of showcasing the biggest UFC fights across the globe, as well as being a key part of seeing up and coming top range fighters climb to the top since 2008.

Under the terms of the new agreement, fans looking to hit up a buy of a UFC PPV will be redirected to Foxtel and Kayo Sports’ Main Event platform for exclusive access to world class matches. UFC Fight Pass will continue to broadcast live UFC fights, including the Preliminary bouts to UFC PPV events and each UFC Fight Night event in its entirety, in addition to live and on-demand combat sports and unforgettable archived bouts from around the world.

In addition to all the UFC PPV events, sports fans can expect a full menu of UFC content, including UFC Fight Nights, UFC Pay-Per-View Prelims, UFC Countdown, DC & RC, plus selected titles from UFC’s Fight Library on ESPN, available on Kayo Sports and Foxtel.

Ahead of the UFC’s first PPV event in 2024, Australian foodie critic, MasterChef Australia judge and self-confessed fanatic Melissa Leong will host UFC Fight Week on Wednesday, January 17, available on Kayo Sports and Foxtel. Melissa will be joined by panellists Tyson Pedro and Dan Hooker as they break down UFC 297 and interview Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis. The show will be replayed daily leading up to the event.

UFC’s popularity has boomed since it was first broadcast in Australia in 2008. There are now in excess of 700 million UFC fans across the globe. In Australia and New Zealand, UFC counts more than 4.3 million fans and features the youngest fan base of any professional sport in Australia with 48 per cent aged between 18-39. These stats are gold to the business of sports marketing, sports media and other associated business arms.

“We’re excited to strengthen and expand our relationship with the UFC, the fastest growing sport in the world, and 2024 will deliver a line-up of epic battles, kicking on January 21 with UFC 297,” said Rebecca McCloy, executive director of commercial sport at Foxtel Group.

“Foxtel and Kayo Sports are the best sports broadcasters in the country and they have backed UFC in Australia since the beginning. Together, we will continue to grow UFC in Australia and they will be the destination for the biggest and baddest fights we put on year-round,” said UFC president Dana White.

It will be a full UFC schedule on Main Event in 2024. Following UFC 297, all eyes will turn to Australia’s fan-favourite UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski for his much-anticipated title defence against Georgian Ilia Topuria at UFC 298 in California on February 18.

Media Man: Combat sports PPVs certainly have boomed in Australia since circa 1996 to 2000 when we most closely collaborated and cross promoted with Main Event while working for Optus Vision/Communications in a full-time capacity. The UFC continued to build upon the earlier success of pro boxing and pro wrestling on pay-per-view. The YouTube and social media based features are great, but there's nothing quite like a main event MMA match on PPV for those who live and breath combat sports. Many fighters and former fighters these days even have their own channels across the internet. Exciting times for combat sports fans as well as for those who work in and around the industry. Another chance to ground and pound and KO with the best of them thanks to the UFC, Kayo Sports and Main Event.

Videos To Help Get Casual and Hardcore Fans Up To Speed on UFC 297

(Sources: UFC, Main Event and News)

News

Pay-per-view: The battle between boxing and UFC - June 2018

Profiles

PPVS Combat Sports MMA

On Saturday the two premier combat sports on the planet – boxing and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) – go head-to-head via two world championship pay-per-view (PPV) bouts featuring rising Australian superstars, Jeff Horn and Robert Whittaker.

The undefeated Horn, 30, is the former schoolteacher who shocked the world – and 50,000 people packed into Suncorp Stadium – in 2017 when he defeated boxing legend and WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision in the "Battle for Brisbane".

Next weekend he defends his WBO title in Las Vegas against former unified lightweight world champion Terence Crawford, who is unbeaten in 32 fights and ranks in the top three pound-for-pound boxers globally. Betting markets pitch Horn as a rank underdog, with a scant 11.8 per cent chance of winning.

On the same evening in Chicago the UFC's middleweight world champion, Whittaker, puts his title on the line in the 70-square-metre "Octagon" against explosive Cuban contender Yoel Romero. In July 2017 Whittaker unexpectedly captured Australia's inaugural UFC belt when he prevailed in a close decision over Romero, who was a silver medallist at the Sydney Olympics in freestyle wrestling. A rematch was booked after Romero knocked out the other top middleweight contender at the UFC 221 event in Perth in February 2018. This time bookies have made Whittaker the slight (60 per cent) favourite.

Beyond the punches, the trash talk and the title belts, the big fight night shapes as an important – if somewhat unintended – test of the primacy of these sports. With local heroes in each, which fighting "code" will inspire the most Australians to pay $49.95 to view the Horn fight or $54.95 to see the UFC? The winner of that battle will be sitting pretty.

Whereas boxing is bifurcated by numerous conflicting federations (the WBA, WBC, IBF, IBO and WBO to name but a few), the UFC is unusual in sporting terms insofar as one company owns its entire league. Other global exceptions along these lines include the multibillion-dollar Formula 1 and MotoGP franchises that run the premier auto and motorbike racing competitions.

In soccer, baseball, NFL, basketball, rugby and cricket, teams are individually owned and the contest governed by associations that may or may not be controlled by their sport's participants. The UFC's ownership of the world's richest mixed-martial arts (MMA) league allows it to compel the very best athletes to go toe-to-toe with one another (or else get kicked off the roster). This brutal meritocracy contrasts with boxing where leading fighters regularly accumulate long win streaks by avoiding one another for years, much to the frustration of fans.

Huge success

In August 2017 the two domains temporarily combined in the world's most lucrative PPV contest when Irish UFC superstar Conor McGregor fought the best pound-for-pound boxer of all-time, Floyd Mayweather. The event was held under boxing rules in what was McGregor's first professional bout. While Mayweather eventually triumphed in the 10th round, experts gave McGregor the opening five rounds.

The fight itself was a staggering commercial success, generating a record 6.7 million PPV buys. Coupled with the gate, this produced more than $US655 million ($856 million) in revenue. Mayweather, 41, took home $US300 million while 29-year-old McGregor walked away with $US100 million.

In an exclusive interview with AFR Weekend, the UFC's long-time president, Dana White, reveals that Mayweather will likely enter the UFC's Octagon in a rematch against McGregor. Asked about this extraordinary possibility, White says, "I think it is probably going to happen".

This sporting rivalry will explode again on Saturday when Horn and Whittaker's world championship PPV contests collide. According to both sides this embarrassing scheduling conflict was never meant to happen. And everyone blames Horn's legendary promoter and Top Rank CEO, Bob Arum, who has had a notoriously toxic relationship with the UFC.

"It's frustrating," Horn tells AFR Weekend. "We will definitely lose [financially] as a result," he says, pointing to Top Rank. His trainer and manager, Jeff Rushton, who also runs $40 million in global funds at Rushton Financial Services, confirms the "annoying" clash "will cost Jeff", suggesting the "promoters should have organised a better date".

"We tried to change the date, but Top Rank said 'no way' and we now accept we will lose some monetary value."

In arguably one of the top non-tech trades of this century, White and his two billionaire buddies, casino magnates Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, bought the UFC in 2001 for $US2 million and flipped it 15 years later for $US3.8 billion (they retain small minority interests).

Bitter rivals

The UFC's president does not pull his punches when asked why PPV buyers must choose between two Aussie world championships on the same night. "Bob Arum has dementia and probably didn't even know that we were staging a huge UFC event featuring several high-profile Australians on that date," White claims.

"Arum is one of the guys who helped kill boxing," he continues. "He's talked shit about me and the Fertitta brothers for years: how much money we were making; how this sport would never work; and after decades of our success he's now trying to copy every f---ing thing we do."

Boxing promoters are indeed trying to emulate the UFC's event management approach that sells an entertainment experience 41 times a year in cities around the world rather than two specific athletes. Whereas a UFC card normally has 15 fights, including multiple headlining acts, boxing tends to focus on promoting a single bout, like Golovkin versus Canelo or Joshua versus Klitschko. If either athlete drops out, the event is cancelled. While it's also common for UFC cards to lose their main event in the days prior due to injury, the show always marches on, thanks to the UFC's deep roster of more than 600 contracted athletes.

In what could be a disruptive shake-up for the industry, White says the UFC's parent entity, Zuffa LLC, plans on taking on boxing's incumbents with a new league that it will own and control. "We will not work with the WBA, WBC, IBF, IBO, and WBO organisations," he says.

"The interest is definitely there – all the fighters have reached out, other promoters have contacted us and everybody's keen," White says. "The question is how I make it work with bandwidth maxed out right now running the UFC's business."

At Whittaker's UFC 225 title defence on Saturday there are two other Australians on the main card: undefeated Indigenous heavyweight Tai Tuivasa, who fights ex-UFC champ Andrei Arlovski; and Megan Anderson, a world champion at the female promotion, Invicta, who will take on another former UFC champ in Holly Holm.

'Rough and tough'

Asked what explains the wave of Australian fighters ascending the UFC's ranks, White offers a primal response: "I've said this for a very long time ever since we went to Australia – that it is a really rough and tough land that breeds equally tough people."

"Most things that live on this planet that can kill you are found in Australia – from great white sharks to snakes, spiders, jellyfish and crocodiles," White says. "Aussies love the fight culture – whether it is becoming a fighter or being a fan – and it has quickly become our third biggest PPV market."

Another explanation is that Australian fighters, who are normally powerful strikers, often have backgrounds in rugby where the main game is avoiding being taken to the ground. Whittaker, Mark Hunt, Tuivasa, and Alexander Volkanovski were all professional or semi-pro rugby players.

"The fact I spent years playing footy trying to stay on my feet helps a lot and creates a good athletic base to defend takedowns for guys like us who don't have the same grappling experience as opponents from the US, South America and Europe," Tuivasa says.

The barrel-chested Tuivasa, known as "Bam Bam", has won all seven of his professional fights via dramatic first-round knockouts. The 25-year-old was born in Sydney to an Indigenous mother and a Samoan father, and is proud of this heritage, carrying an Aboriginal flag into the Octagon with him.

Signed to play for the Sydney Roosters at age 17, Tuivasa found "living away from family and friends hard" and "started gambling more than I should have". He left rugby league to return home and pursue a full-time MMA career, and is now married to the sister of another Aussie UFC prospect, Tyson Pedro.

The biggest casualty of this weekend's clash between the boxing and UFC tribes will inevitably be their diluted PPV revenues. Horn's trainer, Rushton, who was ironically a five-times national MMA champion, hopes most pubs will screen both events simultaneously.

One need not, however, lose sleep over the fighters' financials. Horn will earn $2.5 million for stepping into the ring against Crawford, making him one of Australia's best-paid athletes. The relatively unknown Whittaker took home $573,000 in his first UFC title challenge in 2017. That number will multiply given he has now negotiated a cut of the lucrative PPV pie in addition to significantly higher base money.

In the long run it is conceivable that we see these sports combine into a single league if Zuffa achieves its goal of taking over boxing, which could have a limited half-life as a distinct discipline.

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