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Live Ultimate Fighting Championship events will be shown in more than 300 theaters nationwide thanks to a deal the fight promotion struck with the NCM Fathom entertainment company.
Beginning with UFC 111 on March 27, the UFC's pay-per-view shows will air in high-definition on screens from a variety of movie-theater groups.
UFC fighters will even host live events in theaters across the country on fight night.
UFC 111 takes place live from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The main event features UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre vs. Dan Hardy, and in the co-headliner, Frank Mir takes on Shane Carwin for an interim heavyweight title and a shot at champion Brock Lesnar.
"This is an opportunity to provide our fans with another cool way to watch UFC programming on the big-screen, live, in high-def and in surround sound," UFC president Dana White said. "UFC 111 has a stacked undercard, and St-Pierre vs. Hardy and Mir vs. Carwin are both title fights, so this is the perfect event to kick off our new deal with NCM Fathom.
Most ticket prices range from $15 to $25 per event.
UFC will be show in 300 select movie theaters, including AMC Entertainment Inc., Celebration! Cinema, Cinemark USA Inc., Clearview Cinemas, Cobb Theatres, Goodrich Quality Theatres, Hollywood Theaters, Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, Marcus Theatres, National Amusements and Regal Entertainment Group movie theaters, as well as the Carolina Theatre (Asheville, N.C.), Palace Cinema 9 (South Burlington, Vermont) and Penn Cinema (Lititz, Penn.) through NCM's exclusive Digital Broadcast Network – North America's largest cinema broadcast network.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/18048/live-ufc-events-hit-movie-theaters-nationwide-beginning-with-ufc-111.mma
I wonder how succesful this will be and how it will affect PPV buys. I think the rationale of this is that most people get together at a mates house and chip in to buy a ppv event, but by showing events in theathres and charging per ticket they can generate more revenue....
They have been pretty succesful with showing televised prelims on spike, as it has shown to dramataically increase last minute ppv buys. This other new idea could well prove to be succesful aswell.
