UFC 163 Prelims TV Ratings Suffer From Lack of Promtion and Difficult Summer Season

UFC 163: Aldo vs. Korean Zombie failed to drive much interest heading into Saturday’s pay-per-view event, which emanated from Rio de Janeiro, and that was reflected in the TV ratings for the preliminary bout broadcast on FX.

The UFC 163 Prelims on FX attracted an audience of 1,000,000 viewers for the four-bout, two-hour broadcast.

UFC 163 admittedly suffered from a lack of promotional attention overall with the launch of Fox’s new nationwide sports network, Fox Sports 1, and the re-branding of Fuel TV to Fox Sports 2, receiving the lion’s share of the media giant’s focus. That coupled with the general difficulty in drawing a summertime viewing audience left UFC 163 fighting an uphill battle.

The lowest ratings the prelims on FX have ever drawn was 880,000 for its first airing, which was for UFC 142 early last year.

The prelims have dipped below the 1,000,000-viewer mark a few times in the past, but have averaged 1.26 million viewers per event since the initial UFC 142 preliminary bout broadcast on FX.

The lackluster TV ratings wasn’t reflective of fighter effort. The UFC 163 preliminary bout broadcast featured all the bonus winners for the event.

Anthony Perosh won Knockout of the Night honors with his 14-second knockout of Vinny Magalhaes, Sergio Moraes finished Neil Magny with a triangle choke for the Submission of the Night, and Ian McCall won a unanimous decision victory over Iliarde Santos in the Fight of the Night.

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo defended his belt by stopping Chan Sung Jung in the fourth round of their bout, which served as the UFC 163 main event on pay-per-view.