Travis Crowe's Blog

A few weeks ago Dana White and the UFC announced that they would be streaming non televised prelim fights live on Facebook. After initially booking 2 fights to be shown, the idea was reconsidered and an additional 2 more fights were added to the experimental ploy. So what did viewers have to do to watch them? By simply logging into Facebook and “liking” the UFC page, fans across the world were able to access the live stream and watch the fights for free. It is reported that over the weekend the page increased its “likes” by over 60,000, a 1.3% increase. Did i mention that once you “like” the page the UFC can promote other events and they can pop up on your home page for Facebook to keep you up to date.

UFC Home Page on Facebook

By using the ultra popular social media network Facebook, the UFC has continued to successfully promote the company on its own page. In my opinion this strategy is brilliant, there is no other athletic organization that uses social media quite like the UFC does. That being said, an interesting point that has been trending across the internet is the reaction from fans. Although many fans claimed the quality was excellent, there were some including myself that had sub par quality off of the live stream. It is uncertain at the moment as to the effects that this could have, but I know personally as an avid MMA fan just receiving the fights for free was a bonus in and of itself. As for the Facebook/UFC connection, it is clearly the next step in promoting sports through the means of social media. In my opinion this is only a foot hole with plenty more fights going to be streamed live in the future.