Georges St. Pierre Will Cure Your Pay-Per View Woes

(Down on your luck? Then let Georges St. Pierre and his chiseled abs take away the pain.)

It was no secret that the UFC wasn't exactly generating mega pay-per view buys during the fourth quarter of 2009 and early quarter of 2010. Then again, the promotion was dealing with a mega injury blight that put SARS and Bird Flu to shame. Thus, fans and observers eagerly anticipated UFC 111 as it would most likely usher in blockbuster returns and boy, did Georges St. Pierre deliver. 

Dave Meltzer reports that early estimates place UFC 111 around 850,000 pay-per view buys since updated to 770,000 potentially good enough for sixth all-time.

So, what accounted for the huge spike? Probably a host factors: consumers discriminating which pay-per views to buy, extra promotion (UFC Primetime), two title fights (one was an interim belt) and star power like St. Pierre and Frank Mir (it is believed that Mir helped UFC 107's buy rate immensely).

Even if the final number is below 850,000 770,000 it is still good news all around.

But WKR does have a couple questions. First, to what degree did Dan Hardy's pre-fight performance contribute to the showing and will Hardy's performance make him a pay-per view draw or contributing factor in the future? His mouth and look say yes, but we aren't so sure about his skill level within the division.

Second, WKR did notice a lot of anger leaving the Prudential Center and online. So we have to ask whether or not there will be any residual costs to the next St. Pierre fight card, e.g., lower buy rate?

Both are potentially interesting stories to follow in the future.

Finally, Meltzer pointed out an interesting occurrence

An interesting note is that even with the big buy rate, the one hour of prelims on Spike only did a 0.9 rating and 1.2 million viewers, the lowest of all PPV prelims to date. The most recent airing of prelims, before the 2/6 show, did a 1.2 rating and 1.7 million viewers, which was the best. But that PPV after doing the biggest Spike numbers, a show headlined by Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman, only did 275,000 buys, the company's lowest for a U.S. show in four years.

It would make sense that a bigger pay-per view showing means less viewers for the Spike preliminary card as they viewers are driving to parties or bars to watch the event. If true then we have to ask whether or not the Spike prelims really contribute to the overall buy rate? Even if they don't the Spike prelims are still awesome, so don't get rid of them Zuffa/Spike!

SBN coverage of UFC 111: St-Pierre vs. Hardy