The case for (and against) UFC Fight Pass, the new digital network

About an hour before the first UFC 168 prelim bout got underway this past Saturday night, UFC executives gathered media members in a big ballroom just outside Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena to give us their best pitch for UFC Fight Pass – the brand new “digital network” we’ve heard so much about in recent weeks.

I admit I went into it the same way you might go into that time-share presentation that accompanies the free vacation. That is to say, I was skeptical, but theoretically willing to be convinced.

Up until this presentation, the main selling point for Fight Pass had been the ability to watch live shows like this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 34 event from Singapore, which features a decent headliner on top of a bunch of fighters whom the UFC website still doesn’t have photos of, all beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET. When I heard that the UFC wanted $9.99 a month for that, let’s just say I wasn’t exactly rushing to get out my credit card.

My position didn’t change much when UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta began his pitch by delving into the UFC’s struggle to meet demand for primetime events in international markets.

“There are some markets that we’ve been to in the past that have been very successful, like Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, Dublin, Ireland, and it takes literally three or four years to get back to those markets, leaving this demand unfulfilled,” Fertitta said. “So that’s really the reason for expanding the number of events.”

Great. That’s a fine reason for the UFC to do these events, but not a terribly compelling one for fans in North America to pay for them.

If Fertitta has a weakness when operating as a UFC spokesman, it’s stuff like this. He might have UFC President Dana White beat when it comes to level-headed professionalism or the ability to make valid points using only his indoor voice, but White is still the superior salesman/carnival barker of the pair. Fertitta seems like he’s always addressing investors rather than media or fans. Where he turned it around was when he hit upon the one-sentence pitch that he probably should have led with, describing Fight Pass as “Netflix for the fight fan.”

Finally, something that appeals to our interest rather than the UFC’s bottom line.

And, honestly? Once I created an account to check out the free trial (which still requires a credit card to sign up for, even if Zuffa won’t start billing it until March 1), I had to admit there was a lot to like. Want to watch Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson (still my pick for Fight of the Year) all over again? One click and you’re there. You can even watch the entire main card from that event, which allows you to choose your camera angle and audio feed, going into either fighter’s corner to hear what his coaches are shouting at any given moment.

If you’re not sure what you want to watch, there are some helpful lists to browse through. You can follow the UFC heavyweight title as it changes hands through the years (something that happened a lot with that particular belt). You can also see favorites compiled by individual fighters like Matt Hughes (shocker: he favors old-timers over the new breed) or Chael Sonnen. (Why is the Nate Diaz vs. Manny Gamburyan fight that ends in TKO due to injury on his list of favorites? You’ll have to ask him.) That’s good stuff for both longtime fight fans who want to relive old memories or newcomers who want to get caught up to speed. You could get sucked in and spend your whole morning this way. I did.

So there’s the good news.

The bad news is, at least in its current form, it’s nowhere near as complete or extensive as the product advertised by UFC executives on Saturday night (“You have access to everything,” White said at one point, though it clearly isn’t the case right now). Want to watch individual PRIDE fights? Sorry, all Fight Pass has are old episodes of “The Best of PRIDE,” and it’s tough to tell what’s in each one.

Want to watch specific fights that you remember as being particularly awesome, like, say, Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann? Type that into the search field and you get this: “No videos found matching your search query.” Kind of feels like signing up for HBO Go only to have them tell you that season three of “The Wire” isn’t available. What’s the point?

And if this is the free trial that’s supposed to get me hooked so I won’t cancel when it ends, shouldn’t you be putting your best foot forward now? Shouldn’t you hold off on announcing your bold new digital effort until it’s, you know, ready for us to look at it and form opinions on it?

According to UFC officials, some of that has to do with the sheer volume of content we’re dealing with here. There are a ton of fights that Zuffa owns the rights to after its years of operations and many acquisitions, and those could take months to upload. There’s also no guarantee that the UFC will make all its fights available at any one time, possibly because the UFC is concerned that complete, unfettered access to the full fight library would result in a bunch of early subscriptions, only to have people cancel once they’ve seen their favorites.

The fact that that’s even a concern should tell us something about the true appeal of Fight Pass, at least for right now. For most users, it’s about access and control. The chance to watch some live fights, that’s just an added bonus – until, that is, the live fights see a jump in quality, which should happen with Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jimi Manuwa on March 8, right after the free trial has ended. Then the appeal starts to shift. Those fights that are scheduled to air live on Fight Pass? They won’t be rebroadcast, ever, on FOX Sports 1 or FOX Sports 2 or anywhere else, according to the UFC.

That marks a distinct change in strategy from the UFC, which has historically been very good about making sure that its best stuff gets seen by as many people as possible on whatever platform necessary. Now it would have us believe that, even if Gustafsson-Manuwa turns out to be fight of the century, the only way to see it will be to pony up the 10 bucks for Fight Pass.

You could argue that it’s just the newest scheme to squeeze money out of fight fans. Or, to take a more generous view, maybe the UFC is just ahead of the curve here. The FOX deal will be over in a few years, and who’s to say the network will want to re-up with a number that the UFC likes?

With UFC pay-per-view buys trending downward and broader trends suggesting a mass shift away from traditional TV viewing habits and toward streaming services, maybe the UFC is thinking ahead to the post-cable world of the not-so distant future. Face it, people don’t watch TV the same way they did a decade ago. And now that viewers know what it’s like to have unfettered access to the stuff they choose, it can’t be long before paying for cable bundles full of channels they never watch is a thing of the past.

From that perspective, this is a smart, forward-thinking move by the UFC. It’s also one that, at least right now, could stand to do a little better in terms of execution. According to UFC executive Marshall Zelaznik, the company is “in discussions” with Apple TV and Roku, and “there will be a very thorough discussion and negotiation that comes along with the Fight Pass service that gets us into those places. We think it’s a premier product that needs to be treated premier.”

It also absolutely needs to be available on TV and on an array of mobile devices rather than solely in its current form, which, Zelaznik admitted, is strictly “URL-based.” You can’t call it Netflix for the fight fan if we have to crack open our laptops to watch. And, unless we’re talking about porn, it’s tough to get North American audiences to pay for content that’s only available on their computers.

At least the UFC seems aware of these potential obstacles, even if for right now the answer to almost every problem is a promise of a fix at some vague point in the future. Meanwhile, the point when you’ll need to pay for access to this work in progress? That’s the one date that’s firmly set.

For more on UFC Fight Night 34, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.