It was announced earlier this week that Titan FC had secured a new distribution deal as the promotion agreed to an exclusion, long term deal with the UFC digital streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
This deal has been in the works for awhile and Titan FC CEO Jeff Aronson explained the distribution deal with The MMA Report on Tuesday evening and started off by saying that this deal would not have been possible without his business partner Lex McMahon.
“First of all, none of it would have been possible without Lex McMahon,” Aronson explained. “Who I give a ton of credit too and Tim Schultz, our in-house general counsel who worked diligently with the folks over at Fight Pass. It has been talked about for awhile and it got facilitated just a couple of days ago. This is a pretty landmark deal in terms of Fight Pass and in the terms of Titan. The things that are going to come over the next couple of weeks, couple of months are going to be really interesting for the fans. I think it’s going to change the paradigm in the MMA landscape in a very positive way and in a pretty quick way as well.”
Titan FC was previously shown on the CBS Sports Network, which is not a basic cable channel. This was obviously something that hurt viewership for the Titan FC cards and some people have begun to cut the cord. In a recent article on Forbes, Cablevision CEO James Dolan talked about the decline in subscriptions of larger bundle packages. With what is going on with how people view television right now, did “cord cutters” play a role into Titan FC electing to go with UFC Fight Pass?
“I think there has been a massive amount of unplugging of the receivers. In terms of television distribution, I think digital is the wave of the future and internet certainly is the wave of the future. To us, we are always trying to stay in front. That does not mean we will not do TV distribution deals as well. I am sure that is something we will do internationally. Possible nationally as well, but if you look at Netflix and what they are doing and even look at WWE and UFC with Fight Pass, it’s just a natural.”
Since the announcement of the distribution deal with UFC Fight Pass, the response has mostly been positive. However, there is a small amount of people that have talked about a potential negative side of this deal. A term that may get used by some people is that Titan FC is now “in bed” with the UFC since their cards will be on UFC Fight Pass. When asked how he would respond to those people, Aronson stated if he was going to associate himself with anyone, it would be Zuffa.
“First of all, let’s be really honest. Without UFC, this whole sport that we love so much and that we follow, dedicate a majority of our lives to would not be around,” Aronson explained. “That is the bottom line. If you want to hate on them and you do not agree with some of their decisions and you have you own feelings about them, that’s fine. At the end of the day, all of this is possible because of the hard work they have done.”
“For me, if I am going to associate myself with anyone. It’s going to be Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, and the folks over at Zuffa. They are a proven commodity. They have done more for this sport than any promotion. No question about it. I think Titan is its own entity. Titan is going to continue to do what Titan does really well. That is put on fantastic shows. Incentivize the fighters to go for the finish. Keep up with Fans, Fighters, First and deliver the best product to the people as we can. Now, we have one added level where we can go and give fighters even more exposure to fulfill there life long dream.”
Titan FC 34 on July 18 will be the second Titan FC event of 2015. With this only being the second event for the promotion this year, Aronson confirmed that fans can expect a loaded and stacked card coming from Montreal.
“The cards are all going to be stacked,” he said. “We have a lot of fighters that we need to get fighting. Obviously with our situation and concentrating on the AeroFest event and then making the change over to Fight Pass. It took some time and I think it was worth it for everybody because I think for the fighters, this really closes the circle. I can’t imagine any promotion out there that fighters are going to want to go to given the fact of the exposure that are going to get to the powers to be. I don’t see why any top prospect or vet looking to work their way back would not want to sign with Titan given our position in the marketplace right now. I think we are the ultimate promotion for that and to facilitate fantastic cards for the fans. The true winners in this whole deal are the fans and the fighters. I firmly believe that.”
Tickets for Titan FC 34 will be going on sell shortly according to Aronson and that announcement could be coming by the end of the week.