CBS Sports Network will be the new home for live Bellator MMA mixed martial arts events beginning Oct. 1, the companies announced Friday.

Bellator MMA fights, which have aired on Paramount Network -- formerly Spike TV -- since 2013, will now air on CBS Sports Network, beginning with the Oct. 1 Bellator 247 event and including the Bellator Paris event on Oct. 10.  CBS Sports Network will also telecast the Oct. 15 Bellator 249 fight card, said the company.

Undercard fights from Bellator MMA events will stream on CBSSports.com and Bellator MMA’s YouTube channel.

“We’re excited to have CBS Sports Network serve as the new home of live Bellator MMA events. It’s a great opportunity to showcase some of the best events and biggest names in the sport,” said CBS Sports Executive Vice President of Programming Dan Weinberg in a statement. “Adding Bellator MMA to the CBS Sports portfolio will allow for greater promotion, engagement and exposure across all our platforms and assets including CBS Sports Network, CBSSports.com, CBS Sports HQ as well as our various social accounts.”

Paramount Network president Kevin Kay will leave his position in the latest Viacom executive shakeup.

Kent Alterman will add oversight of the Paramount Network as president of Viacom’s Comedy Central, Paramount Network and TV Land Group, the company announced Thursday.

In another move, MTV, VH1 and Logo president Chris McCarthy will add day-to-day operations of CMT to his duties, according to Viacom. Alterman and McCarthy will continue to report to CEO Bob Bakish.

“These changes mark the next step in the ongoing evolution of our company as we continue to ensure we’re making the most of our great assets and resources, and operating as nimbly and efficiently as we can,” said Bakish in a statement. “Kent and Chris have been driving forces behind Viacom’s flagship strategy, re-energizing and growing two of our most iconic brands, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.”

During his tenure at Viacom, Kay oversaw the launch of several Nickelodeon hits such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Kenan & Kel. At Spike, Kay launched The Ultimate Fighter and Lip Sync Battle before overseeing the transition of the network from Spike to the Paramount Network this past January.

“Over the course of his career at Viacom, Kevin’s creative vision and gift for telling great stories have made a lasting impact,” Bakish said in a statement. “Thanks to the efforts of Kevin and his team, we have successfully established Paramount Network as a home for premium content, and TV Land and CMT continue to be dominant forces in the audiences they serve. I’m so grateful for the many contributions they have made in evolving and strengthening these world-class brands for their next chapter.”

RELATED: Viacom Taps Brian Robbins as Nickelodeon President 

The announcement comes five months after BET chairman and CEO Debra Lee stepped down and nearly a month after Paramount Players President Brian Robbins was named as president of Nickelodeon, replacing former Nickelodeon president Cyma Zarghami who left the company in June.

RELATED: Debra Lee To Step Down as Chairman and CEO of BET 

Spike TV has teamed with documentarian Joe Berlinger to create a multi-part documentary series on the disappearances of six women in Southern Ohio debuting in July, the network announced Thursday.

The eight-hour series, Gone: The Forgotten Women Of Ohio, premieres July 22 and will follow the tragic saga of a struggling Midwest region plagued by drug and sex trafficking, said network officials. 

“Although the missing women in Ohio initially garnered national media attention, they seem to have been forgotten about without any real justice being served. After discussing with Joe we were compelled to try and give these women a voice,” said Chachi Senior, Senior Vice President, Alternative Programming and Development for Spike in a statement. “Partnering with Joe has been an extremely humbling experience. He is quite frankly the best at what he does.”

Gone: The Forgotten Women of Ohio is produced by RadicalMedia in association with Third Eye Motion Picture Company for Spike. Berlinger serves as director and executive producer, wiht Jon Kamen, Dave O’Connor, Justin Wilkes and Catharine Park serving as executive producers for the series. 

Mixed martial arts organization UFC will step into the reality competition octagon for a 25th season on April 19, with its competition series The Ultimate Fighter looking to deliver another knockout season of fisticuffs to fight-starved FS1 viewers.

The series, in which up-and-coming MMA competitors live together under one roof while vying against each other in a series of elimination fights — with the winner earning a coveted UFC contract — is credited with exposing the once-fringe Ultimate Fighting Championship to a mainstream audience.

“The show has been instrumental in the success of the UFC and getting us on television,” UFC president Dana White, who also serves as executive producer of The Ultimate Fighter, told Multichannel News. “It’s also created a ton of talent — not only great fighters that have fought in the UFC, but great champions.”

REACHED HEIGHTS FOR FS1
Launched in 2005 on Spike TV and now airing on FS1, The Ultimate Fighter has produced two seasons each year, providing an entry point both for fans curious about the emerging sport and for athletes vying to become household names on the UFC circuit. The series is the most-watched original series in FS1’s history and has spawned an aftershow, TUF Talk, which recaps each installment.

“Not only are viewers tuning into FS1 to follow the series, but their appetite to go even deeper into the fighters and the storylines has been insatiable,” David Nathanson, head of business operations for Fox Sports, said.

But the show wasn’t always a knockout success. In fact, the first season of the series almost never got off the ground. When UFC pitched the concept of The Ultimate Fighter to networks in 2005, UFC was still in its development stages and perceived as a violent, no-holds-barred entity. The only TV exposure for the sport was though its various pay-per-view events. Cable networks weren’t jumping at the chance to put MMA on the air.

“When we first thought about doing The Ultimate Fighter, the first season was really rough to even launch,” Craig Piligian, CEO of TV production company Pilgrim Media Group and executive producer of The Ultimate Fighter, said. “The perception back then of the UFC was that two men enter the ring and only one man leaves: They thought it was a blood sport and that people really died fighting. We really wanted the show to blow away those misconceptions.”

Finally Viacom’s Spike TV, then a men’s-targeted network, decided to offer the UFC a time buy on the channel. Piligian would forfeit his production fees and the UFC ponied up the cash to launch the first season of the show in 2005. “Dana and I flew around the country looking for sponsors for the show and we couldn’t find one — it was a real nightmare,” Piligian recounted. “I never thought it would go more than one season because you just didn’t know if anyone would support it.”

At the time, though, White and Piligian vowed to create an honest reality show that stayed true to the actions of the fighters both inside and outside the octagon.

“We were sort of winging it, but the thing that has kept The Ultimate Fighter so strong is that nothing in it is fake,” White told MCN. “The most contrived part of the show is when I’m standing there and say, ‘Gentlemen, welcome to The Ultimate Fighter.’ Then it’s game on. Everything that happens is spontaneous and real — it is real reality television. There’s nothing scripted on The Ultimate Fighter.”

Added Piligian: “We didn’t Hollywood it — we gave people a brawl, regardless of whether it was a great brawl or a bad brawl.”

The final bout of the first season pitted then-unknowns Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin in an action-packed fight that many observers described as the fight that officially launched the UFC into the mainstream.

“The first season killed it and the rest is history,” said White. “We literally went into the alley behind the arena after the fight and made the deal for the second season of TUF and the UFC.”

Griffin would win the bout and go on to become the UFC’s light heavyweight world champion, one of six fighters from The Ultimate Fighter to eventually wear a championship belt. “The pinnacle moment for me was in 2005 when I won The Ultimate Fighter because I knew at that moment that my life had changed forever,” recalled Griffin, who now serves as vice president of athlete development for the company. “To me, at its heart the show is about finding the best talents that have the potential to be in the UFC and put them under a microscope and see how they deal with the pressure.”

Added White: “TUF, literally, it is our rookie camp. I really get to see who’s who and what’s what — it couldn’t be any more perfect for me to scout talent.”

The Ultimate Fighter would air on Spike TV for six years before moving to FX as part of the groundbreaking, seven-year TV deal UFC reached with Fox Sports in 2011.

In 2013, the show would move to then newly launched national sports network FS1. That move bolstered UFC’s status as a legitimate sport, White said, putting it on the same platform as high-profile, mainstream properties such as Major League Baseball, NASCAR and major college football and basketball games.

“The Ultimate Fighter has been one of the crown jewels of the UFC portfolio, and since we’ve launched Fox Sports 1, it’s been the No. 1 original series on the FS1 network,” Fox’s Nathanson said.

Added White: “The love that Fox has put behind the show in helping us promote it every season has really helped the show’s success. They’ve done a fantastic job.”

During its run, UFC has tinkered with the The Ultimate Fighter’s format to keep the show fresh and entertaining for viewers. The upcoming season, dubbed “Redemption,” will feature fighters who have competed in previous seasons once again vying for a UFC contract. Previous seasons have included casts of all-women fighters, with Ronda Rousey as a coach, as well as the launch of a new weight division, complete with its first champion, UFC executive vice president of operations Craig Borsari said.

“It’s challenging to try to figure out that right balance between changing up the format slightly and finding the right characters to bring to the house while not alienating the viewers that got us here,” Borsari said. “There are times where we’ve pushed the envelope, but for the most part, we’ve figured out how to keep the core format in place with minor tweaks on the fringes, which has helped this show maintain the longevity that it’s had.”

STORYLINES ‘NEVER DISAPPOINT’
Regardless of the format changes, FS1’s Nathanson added, The Ultimate Fighter consistently delivers a power punch for viewers looking for quality, action-packed fights.

“The Ultimate Fighter never disappoints … eventually what gets you every single season is the actual athletes and the storylines that emerge from them,” he said. “Not only are they incredibly compelling fighters, but they are compelling athletes, and the storylines are able to give people a reason to follow them well after the series, particularly if they’re lucky enough to make it into the UFC.”

As for the future, White said he can see the show continuing to thrive and build its next generation of champions as the UFC continues to grow as a sport. “If the sport continues to grow and more fans make their way toward the UFC, I think the TUF will always be relevant.”

Added Piligian: “Never before has a reality unscripted TV show built a sport, and that’s what this one did and will continue to do.”


SIDEBAR: FROM ‘ULTIMATE’ TO PINNACLE
Six UFC athletes who debuted onThe Ultimate Fighterwent on to become UFC champions:

FORREST GRIFFIN, Former UFC light heavyweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer (won Season 1).

RASHAD EVANS, former UFC light heavyweight champion (won Season 2 as a heavyweight): Evans defeated Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 to capture the UFC light heavyweight championship.

MICHAEL BISPING, current UFC middleweight champion (won Season 3): Bisping, who entered UFC competition in 2006, captured the UFC middleweight title at UFC 199 in June 2016.

MATT SERRA, former UFC welterweight champion (won Season 4): Serra defeated Georges St-Pierre at UFC 69 to capture the welterweight title in what has been described as the greatest upset in UFC history.

T.J. DILLASHAW, former UFC bantamweight champion (appeared on Season 14): Dillashaw, the only fighter on this list who did not win the season in which he competed on the show, lost in the finale to John Dodson, but rebounded to become bantamweight champion at UFC 173.

CARLA ESPARZA, former UFC strawweight champion (won Season 20): In winning the show, Esparza became the global brand’s firstever champion in the newly established weight class.

SOURCE: UFC

TV Land, one of the networks designated as non-core by new Viacom CEO Bob Bakish, has named Frank Tanki as general manager.

In Viacom’s recently revised structure, TV Land reports into Kevin Kay, president of Spike TV, a core Viacom network that will be undergoing a brand change to become the Paramount Network.

Since the restructuring, TV Land’s president of development and production Keith Cox was promoted to president of development and production for both Paramount and TV Land, while Sharon Levy, TV Land’s executive VP of original series, left the network.

Tanki most recently served as executive VP, brand marketing and creative for Spike.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Controversies surrounding race and the U.S. criminal justice system have spurred a national debate in homes and communities around the country over the past few years. Two new series debuting in the next few weeks will tackle some of those controversies head on.

Following critical acclaim for Netflix’s Ava DuVernay-produced documentary 13th, which focuses on race and mass incarceration in the country, Spike TV will take an unscripted look at the tragic life of Kalief Browder in a six-part documentary series premiering Wednesday, March 1.

Executive-produced by hip-hop entrepreneur Jay-Z, Time: The Kalief Browder Story follows the experiences of Browder (pictured), who in 2010, at 16, was arrested for stealing a backpack. He was never convicted of the alleged crime but nonetheless spent three years in Rikers Island prison in New York — a good portion of that time in solitary confinement. His case has stirred up calls for a reform of the city’s criminal justice system.

Whatever your opinion on whether the scales of justice are balanced for all, Spike TV president Kevin Kay said in an interview that the tragic circumstances surrounding Browder should be of interest.

“This is a hot topic in our society today, and I think people are thinking about this more than they were a couple of years ago,” he said. “I think the timing is right. It’s a story that needs to be told and Spike is in a unique position to tell it.”

Three weeks later (March 22) Fox will premiere a 10-episode scripted drama series, Shots Fired, examining the criminal-justice system in the aftermath of two racially charged shootings in a rural North Carolina town.

The series, starring Sanaa Lathan, Richard Dreyfuss, Helen Hunt and Stephan James, is “probably the most current show you’ll ever see,” according to Dreyfuss, who spoke at the Television Critics Association Winter Tour in January. Shots Fired touches upon the schisms between racial groups and local law enforcement that have made headlines and spurred protests around the country over the past few years — a fact the show’s creators weren’t afraid to explore.

“Going into it, we knew the story we wanted to tell; we knew what we wanted to deal with,” Shots Fired co-creator Gina Prince-Bythewood said at TCA. “It’s very easy for people to watch the news and see a piece about a shooting, and if you don’t identify with who’s on the screen, you turn it off. So we felt the best way to address this issue for us — and to get people who don’t normally go through this issue to understand — was to give them a way in and give them a way to understand.”

When pound for pound pay-per-view boxing champion Manny Pacquiao stepped out of the ring and into retirement after his April 9 unanimous decision win over Timothy Bradley Jr., so went the second-biggest revenue generator in pay-per-view event history.

Pay-per-view boxing’s all-time revenue generator, Floyd Mayweather, had already hung up his gloves last year. The retirements of PPV boxing’s two top draws leaves the category with huge shoes to fill as it comes off its most-successful year ever — success due largely to the record-setting “Fight of the Century” between Mayweather and Pacquiao on May 2, 2015.

It could be years before another PPV-boxing match rises to match the performance of Mayweather-Pacquiao, which raked in 4.5 million buys and more than $400 million in revenue. But it might take just a few rounds for the sweet science to crown some new champions capable of consistently surpassing the industry’s benchmark of 1 million PPV buys, boxing observers said.

Up-and-coming champions aren’t just getting greater television exposure from traditional boxing outlets like HBO and Showtime. New distribution hubs such as the Premier Boxing Champions series — which airs on NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN and Spike TV, among other outlets — are affording exposure to young fighters. And digital media, with its reach and immediacy, can help a fighter quickly build a brand beyond boxing circles.

“There’s always going to be the question of who’s next,” In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development Mark Boccardi said. “It’s a cyclical business and since the late 1990s, there’s always been someone to be that guy or those guys, and within the industry everyone is confident there will be a fighter or fighters who can do that.”

Indeed, after such heavyweights as Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis — as well as lighter-weight fighters like welterweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez — dominated the PPV category in the 1990s, there was a lull before Oscar De La Hoya assumed the mantle in the mid-2000s. Once De La Hoya retired, the stage was set for Mayweather and Pacquiao to rule the PPV event business.

STAR SEARCH

The template for building a PPV fighter has already been established, said Bob Arum, the president of boxing promotion company Top Rank. The key now is to find a fighter or fighters who can follow the game plan.

“It all depends on taking a fighter and putting him in a position where he can attract people to spend money on PPV to watch him fight,” Arum said. “That’s easily said and hard to do.”

Arum, a veteran promoter who worked with Pacquaio and promoted Mayweather in his early boxing years, said that in addition to championship in-ring skills, first and foremost a successful PPV fighter must appeal to as many demographic groups as possible — something both of the aforementioned fighters were able to accomplish over the years.

So who’s closest to stepping into the vaunted PPV ring? The consensus among most boxing observers is that Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez is poised to make the quickest move to PPV superstar status. The middleweight champion — who’ll fight Amir Kahn in a May 7 HBO-distributed PPV event — has already participated in the third-biggest PPV event of all time: his 2013 fight against Mayweather, which drew 2.2 million PPV buys.

His last fight, in November 2015 against Miguel Cotto, pulled in more than 900,000 buys, according to HBO.

“Clearly, with Canelo, you have a PPV superstar that can transition into the next great era,” Mark Taffet, president of sports marketing/consulting company Mark Taffet Media, said. “The challenge for the sport, in order to create a regular flow of million-buy mega-fights, is to develop a great supporting crew.”

Other up-and-coming fighters like welterweight champion Keith Thurman, junior welterweight champ Terence Crawford, middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin, undefeated former super middleweight champion Andre Ward and heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua have been identified as potential draws either on their own, or pitted against one another in PPV mega-fights.

Top Rank will look to build a July PPV card featuring Crawford, Arum said, while the industry is hoping to schedule at least one fall PPV mega-event, although it’s unclear who would headline it.

STILL BUILDING FANS

But as good as those fighters are — and as well-known as they are within boxing circles — they still have yet to develop the broad, diverse audience they’ll need to win in the PPV arena, according to boxing observers.

“It takes time,” said Tony Paige, a boxing broadcaster and sports-talk host on New York radio station WFAN. “The fighters will have to build themselves up with big fights over time to become big PPV draws. If you get enough big wins, you’re driving the bus, so to speak.”

Some observers said the development of the Premier Boxing Champions series, which showcases current champions and young fighters on live fight cards airing on NBC, CBS, Spike TV, ESPN, NBCSN, CBS Sports Network and FS1 — along with other networks like BET and truTV from time to time — as a step in the right direction.

“The sport is not only in the transition to see who ascends to the mountaintop next, but I think there’s a great opportunity with the quickly changing television landscape and technology to reach out and attract the next generation of fans to support the next generation of fighters,” said Taffet, who most recently served as senior vice president of HBO Sports. “It’s a challenge promoters and networks must readily accept to insure a very fertile environment for the sport going forward.”

But offering fights on too many outlets could actually curtail the ability to create one or two mega-stars, Paige cautioned. “It’s hard to build up interest in one particular fighter when that fighter fights one month on one network and then maybe three months later on another network,” he said. “It’s hard for fans to keep up with the schedule.”

Developing continuity in the sport’s message to the consumers is critical if boxing is to build its next wave of top fighters into PPV superstars, Taffet said. “It’s important for consumers to regularly be in touch with the sport, the athletes and the storylines, so that in their increasingly busy, media-savvy days they can develop the attachment that leads to true fan support on an ongoing basis.”

One way to get a fighter’s brand beyond boxing’s core fan base is via social media. Digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram give promoters, fighters and sponsors a chance to continuously feed fans’ appetites in ways that have yet to be fully exploited, Taffet said.

Added WFAN’s Paige: “If you don’t get beyond your core followers you’re just preaching to the choir. What always makes boxers and boxing successful is when you get a crossover audience of people that don’t have anything to do with boxing, but are interested in the fighter.”

Getting to that point will take a combined eff ort from several corners, according to executives.

“It’s not just as simple as everyone getting together and saying let’s just create someone,” said In Demand’s Boccardi. “It’s a combination of the promoter doing their job and finding the fighters, the networks doing their job and helping to develop them, and the PPV industry doing their job to help promote those fighters.”

Spike will partner with singer Christina Aguilera on a new, music-based game show dubbed Tracks.

The show, which will initially premiere as a special later this year, will feature a team of two attempting to name a song title by listening to its individual tracks, said network officials.

Aguilera (The Voice) will executively produce the series, which will also feature surprise celebrity musical guests performing tracks.

Also serving as executive producers are MX Productions founder Matthew Rutler (Chef Without Boarders), and Michael Agbabian and Dwight D. Smith (Hollywood Game Night). Neal Tabachnick and Michael Aubry are co-executive producers for the show, according to Spike.

To read the headlines, operators and cable networks are on the ropes these days, given recent trends toward time-shifted viewing and its negative effect on ratings.

Still, several networks are fighting back with the power ratings punch of live ring sports.

Live boxing, pro wrestling and mixed-martial arts (MMA) programming continues to deliver healthy ratings numbers for networks like FS1, Spike TV, USA Network, Showtime and HBO as sports fans gather in front of large screen TVs to watch action-packed — and unpredictable — DVR-proof live events that help drivesocial media discussion before, during and after the fisticuffs.

Moreover, distributors are experimenting with new technologies like 4K and virtual reality for live ring sports events, while others are exploring OTT options to allow fans to watch all the action on multiple screens.

“It’s unscripted, it’s live and it’s real,” FS1 senior vice president of programming, research and content strategy Patrick Crakes said. “Two people in the ring together trying to test each other — anything can happen at any second.”

RELATED:Stepping Into the TV Ring: A Sampling of Live Ring Sports Events March 1-May 31

SPOILING FOR FIGHTS

Viewers, it turns out, like a good fight, and lots of them are tuning in to see the action. Spike TV’s Feb. 19 Kimbo Slice-Dada Bellator 149 MMA telecast drew a record 2 million viewers — the biggest audience for the general-entertainment channel this year outside of its hit series Lip Sync Battle. The event was part of the network’s Friday-night lineup of live MMA and pro boxing events.

FS1’s live Ultimate Fighting Championship telecasts in 2015 generated 15% of the network’s viewing audience, while comprising just 12% of its programming schedule, according to Crakes. In 2015, FS1’s 26 live UFC events in primetime averaged 1 million total viewers.

So far this year, four live UFC events on FS1 have averaged nearly 1 million viewers. The network is set to air live coverage of the preliminary bouts for UFC’s 12 pay-per-view events, as well as 15 additional live UFC fight cards.

“All of the network’s UFC programming is trending up year to year,” Crakes said. “It really became a phenomenon — it provides a lot of high-quality content.”

Ring sports — especially pro wrestling and MMA — draw the younger viewers who are tuning out of traditional TV programming more often than not, UFC executive vice president and chief content officer Marshall Zelaznik added.

The median age of UFC’s viewer audience is 37.8 years, which skews younger than that of the major U.S. professional sports leagues by 4.8 to 12.1 years, according to the company.

Meanwhile, boxing is gearing up to build on arguably its most successful year ever, from a pay-per-view revenue and ratings standpoint. HBO has already slated two PPV fights in 2016, the April 9 Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley Jr. fight and the May 7 Canelo Alvarez-Amir Kahn bout. It hopes to ride the coattails of last May’s record-setting Floyd Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao event — which generated more than $400 million in PPV revenues — as well as last November’s Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez bout, which drew nearly 1 million PPV buys.

RELATED:HBO's Nelson Looks to Pack a Punch in ’16

A WINNING SEASON

The mixed martial arts and pro wrestling categories are also coming off strong 2015 PPV campaigns, and are looking ahead to big revenue and buy returns this year, Mark Boccardi, In Demand senior vice president of programming and business development, said.

“Ring sports are by nature cyclical, but we’re at a point now where everything has been clicking for these distributors on PPV,” Boccardi said. “UFC had an incredible bounceback year; boxing had its best year ever, due mostly to Mayweather-Pacquiao; and with WWE we still do significant buys for those customers that aren’t subscribing to [the WWE Network over-the-top service, which carries that company’s PPV events].”

As the TV marketplace continues to evolve, network executives said, live ring sports will remain a valuable programming asset for networks looking for a relatively low-cost sports offering — compared with the billion-dollar rights fees commanded by pro sports leagues — that will deliver a unique and loyal audience.

“The value of having a cost-effective sport in today’s sports marketplace can’t be overstated,” said Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president of Showtime Sports, which will mark its 30th year of championship boxing coverage in 2016. “We all know where the industry trend is going in terms of rights fees, so it seems like many programmers have discovered a relatively low-cost barrier to entrytype of sports programming.”

Indeed, networks like AXS TV have relied on live ring sports programming to help build their brand with would-be affilliates and viewers. The Mark Cuban-owned entertainment service has been offering live MMA, boxing and wrestling events on Friday nights for more than a decade.

This year, the network will air 42 live ring sports events, AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon said. The immediacy of the events, and the need to watch them as they’re happening, have helped put the network on the map.

“In today’s television world, we don’t know many people who are watching TV in real time outside of sports,” Simon said. “It’s sports that you have to watch live. You do not want to hear that Holly Holm beat Ronda Rousey and then watch a replay of the fight — you want to watch that live and then be able to join in the social engagement afterwards.”

Even pro wrestling, a heavily scripted but still action-infused genre, has benefited from providing live content to its legion of fans. USA Network continues to draw more than 4 million viewers a week for its weekly, live WWE Monday Night Raw series, which is now in its 23rd year.

The live Raw telecasts allow WWE fans to engage with must-see television every week, while affording USA Network an opportunity to showcase its other programming to pro wrestling’s loyal and committed viewer base, NBCUniversal Entertainment Networks president Chris McCumber said.

“As the most-watched regularly scheduled year-round program on cable, Monday Night Raw is an extremely valuable franchise, with three hours of live, high-octane entertainment airing on USA every Monday night, 52 weeks a year to a massive, passionate, loyal and engaged fanbase,” McCumber said in a statement.

Added WWE chief revenue and marketing officer Michelle Wilson: “While the TV landscape continues to evolve, live, DVR-proof programming remains extremely valuable to both our partners and fans. Live programming also serves as the core of engagement across digital and social platforms and drives the conversation all week long, 24/7.”

SOCIAL-MEDIA STRENGTH

Live content is also a major driver of socialmedia action. Of the 10 most-discussed TV shows on Twitter in 2015, six were live sports telecasts, according to Nielsen.

“It boosts social traffic because people are talking to each other about what they’ve seen on the live telecast,” Spike president Kevin Kay said. “If you have a great knockout or great submission, the first thing that happens is somebody says, ‘Did you see that?’ and that drives viewership and conversation on social and drives up traffic during the fight and after the fight.”

Several networks are working toward making sure viewers can see those big knockouts through technological enhancements like 4K and virtual reality.

UFC will look in the near future to implement virtual reality and 4K-enhanced video for live events offered on its Fight Pass OTT service, UFC’s Zelaznik said.

The subscription-based Fight Pass will offer live coverage of the undercard fights for UFC’s more than 41 live events, as well as more than 110 shows for non-UFC MMA events.

“We think we can provide more value to Fight Pass subscribers and continue to experiment with the new technologies,” he said. “What we can deliver digitally is really high-quality clarity.”

Executives from FS1, AXS TV and Showtime also confirmed experimentation with either or both 4K and virtual reality for their live ring-sports events.

“Virtual reality provides some real opportunities because of its ability to immerse people at home to the experience,” FS1’s Crakes said. “We always hear from our fans that they want the telecast to bring them closer to the event, and virtual reality — if we can make it work inside the home — has that potential. To be able to give everybody a ringside seat is pretty appealing.”

Even more distributors are getting into the live sports ring. Pop will offer its first live TNA Impact Wrestling telecast on March 15. It launched the pro-wrestling series, which had previously aired on Spike TV and later Destination America, in January.

“Impact Wrestling on Pop is must-watch appointment television that delivers a consistent, loyal audience every Tuesday night,” Pop president Brad Schwartz said. “It is 52 weeks a year of original content, including many weeks that are live, like the upcoming live event on March 13.”

El Rey Network may also look to develop live pro wrestling shows based on of its original wrestling series Lucha Underground, according Eric Van Wagenen, showrunner and executive producer for the Mark Burnett-produced reality series.

The sophomore series, which features Mexican pro wrestling content, deliberately does not market or promote episode highlights in advance of its premiere in an effort to replicate the excitement and must-see appeal of a live wrestling telecast.

“It’s absolutely conceivable that we would get to a point of offering a live event,” Wagenen said. “We’re taking a measured approach. The advantage of shooting a season is that it gives us an off-season — we could conceivably supplement the series with live events during that time.”

Also lacing up its live-event gloves is digital company Flipps Media, which earlier this month launched the FITE TV app offering select PPV ring sports events via mobile devices.

Just this past weekend, the service offered six live PPV combat sports events, including Ring of Honor professional wrestling and World Armwrestling Championship events that were also distributed by In Demand, DirecTV and Dish Network.

The FITE TV app can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play, and provides users the option of streaming a live show on a phone or connecting directly to a Smart TV, FITE senior vice president of marketing Michael Weber said.

Along with live PPV programming, the service has deals to distribute free, ad-supported VOD combat sports content.

OTT IN THE RING

“You can’t be in this business doing live event PPV programming and not look for alternatives to cable and satellite,” Weber said, adding that the company is hoping to secure rights deal with other PPV event distributors.

“We all know cable subscriber numbers are shrinking every year, so this makes sense for all the programmers to be looking at new ways to deliver programming,” Weber added. “We’re not trying to replace cable, we want to supplement it.”

With networks and distributors offering content on multiple platforms, it looks like live sports programming will continue to pack a major punch in the television marketplace for several more rounds.

“There’s more content on cable and over-the-air broadcast networks than ever before,” FS1’s Crakes said. “I’m bullish on ring sports because I believe they are the cornerstone of live sports programming.”

Spike TV’s  Bellator MMA 143 telecast pinned down the most social media his in an otherwise light night of activity for TV shows on Twitter.

The live mixed martial arts fight card, which featured the Joe Warren vs. LC Davis bout as its headliner, drew 6,000 tweets reaching a unique audience of 367,000 users to finish first among all entertainment shows for the evening, according to Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings figures.

Bellator beat out broadcast network shows Shark Tank (ABC), The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS) and The Amazing Race (CBS) – as well as a Lifetime’s reality series Bring It! -- for Friday’s TV social media honors, according to Nielsen  

Spike TV has tapped Chachi Senior as its new senior vice president of original series, the network said Wednesday.

Senior, who previously has produced content for such networks as BBC America, Bravo, CMT, E!,  Comedy Central, Oxygen, Food Network, Travel, and Tru TV, will lead Spike TV’s non-scripted development team and will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day department activities, said Sharon Levy, executive vice president, original series, to whom Senior will report.

Senior previously served as CEO of Ardaban, a dedicated entertainment format company whose development is produced in conjunction with Shine America and distributed globally via Shine International. 

“Chachi is a respected veteran in this industry, with a proven track record of leading talented teams to success,” said Levy in a statement.  “Chachi joins Spike at an exciting time as the network continues to attract a gender-balanced audience with hit non-scripted series.”

Spike TV tonight (March 13) will launch its monthly live boxing series as part of its Friday night block of combat sports programming.

Spike’s Premier Boxing Champions series will open with a doubleheader fight card featuring the Andre Berto-Josesito Lopez and Shawn Porter-Roberto Garcia bouts, according to Spike. The event follows NBC’s successful March 7 launch of the Al Haymon-produced Premier Boxing Champions series on the broadcast network.

Haymon’s Premier Boxing franchise also has deals to distribute boxing cards to CBS, Showtime and Bounce TV.

Spike TV president Kevin Kay said the addition of boxing to its Friday night lineup -- which already offers Bellator mixed martial arts events -- will help attract and retain young male viewers as the network looks to broaden its entertainment programming offerings  to bring in more female viewers.  

“It’s a really important place for us to keep (18-34 year old) guys and give them something that they’ve always counted on Spike for,” Kay said during a recent MCN One-On-One In 2 video interview.

To view the full interview click here.

Spike TV’s live Bellator 131 mixed martial arts telecast this past Saturday drew big ratings, averaging 1.2 million viewers for its three hour telecast.

The fight card’s main event bout between Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar drew 1.8 million viewers, making it the most watched MMA fight on cable this year, according to Spike officials. The fight card’s 1.2 million viewers was the most watched Bellator MMA event on Spike TV ever, said the network.

"Bellator 131 was an incredible event that had something for everybody, and I'm thrilled to see our efforts were so well-received by our fans,” said recently named Bellator president Scott Coker in a statement. “I'm very proud of our entire Bellator and Spike family for all of the hard work they put resulting in these record-breaking ratings.”

Spike TV has promoted Anhelo Reyes to Vice President Brand Marketing and Activation, Cedric Foster announced today.

“Anhelo brings to Spike a wealth of experience as a strategic, forward-thinking marketer who has helped launch major franchises,” said Foster, who oversees Brand marketing, in a release. “As Spike continues to evolve and broaden its audience, she will play an integral role in our brand development.”       

Reyes will report to Foster to handle off-channel marketing and develop specific plans for the network's initiatives.

Reyes has previously worked as VP Marketing at Fusion and VP Property Planning and Marketing at Nickelodeon, Spike's Viacom network.

With many years of experience, Reyes has worked on a number of award-winning off-channel marketing programs, such as the network's impact at the San Diego and New York Comic-Con and the Slime Across America tour.

Co-Executive producer of HBO’s Game of Thrones, Vince Gerardis, and Spike TV will join forces for new series about the changes and colonization of Mars.

Based on Kim Stanley Robinson’s best-selling Mars trilogy, Red Mars centers on the author’s main questions: What is it to be human when we are no longer of earth? Are we not then Martians?

“This series shines a light onto many views of what it means to be human – and asks if we can sustain our humanity under incredible duress,” said Executive Vice President, Original Series, Spike TV, Sharon Levy.

Robinson is a recipient of the Nebula and Hugo awards, and her novels are known as “the holy grail” for science fiction fans.

“We are thrilled to partner with such an accomplished producer as Vince Gerardis to tell this incredible and thought-provoking story,” said Levy.

Geradis has also served as executive producer on the ABC show FlashForward.

“There are many homes for large canvas television these days. It inspires me that Sharon has offered her network as home for this and provided a canvas for me to bring the world created in these books to the screen,” said Gerardis.

Many corporations are looking further into the red planet and it is the main organizing factor for all of NASA’s programs as well.

The new crime series, Deep Web, centers on this generations’ American dream, one of economic strife and the desire for instant fame, no matter what that might entail.

Spike TV is pairing up with Tony Krantz and Gary Oldman of Flying Studio Pictures, for the original series, with Scott Gold as the executive producer and writer.

This is the story of a determined tech savant who successfully masters his way into online services, eventually making for one of the most wanted men in the world.

Inspired by the cover story by Scott Gold about the Silk Road online marketplace, this saga follows the wanted crime boss and his friends through Silicon Valley, as they dive into selling online goods, ranging from drugs to human organs.

“In this supremely competitive environment, we are thrilled to be the network to partner with Tony Krantz and filmmakers like Gary and Doug to bring this story to our ever-growing audience, said Sharon Levy, Executive Vice President, Original Series, Spike TV. This project speaks to the network’s search for wholly distinctive and relevant ideas, ripped from today’s headlines, that reflects our brand’s evolvement.”

This will be the first television series Oldman and Urbanski will act as executive producers on, as the two are widely known for their motion pictures.

With a one-hour episode featuring 7-year COPS veteran’s best work, Langley Productions and Spike TV will commemorate audio technician, Bryce Dion on September 20 at 8 p.m.

“Bryce had a passion for life and his work, and was always the first one to help anyone in need. He will best be remembered for a smile that never faded. All of us who knew him or worked with him on “COPS”, as well as the many friends he made working on documentaries and other shows, mourn his passing,” said Morgan and John Langley, Executive Producers of “COPS.”

Dion was killed during production in Omaha, NE on August 26th, and the show will remember him by going through struggles law enforcement faces on a regular basis.

To learn more about Bryce Dion’s tribute, visit the link here.

Mixed Martial Arts company Bellator MMA has named Jason Jordan as its COO, company officials said.

Jordan will oversee financial and operational aspects of the business, as well as manage corporate strategy and business development efforts, said network officials. He’ll report to Scott Coker, Bellator MMA president.

Bellator MMA events currently air on Spike TV and well as via pay-per-view.  

Jordan will continue his role as senior vice president of digital operations, strategy & finance for Viacom Entertainment Group.

“As Bellator continues to evolve into a premier mixed martial franchise, we are thrilled to join forces with such a dynamic and strategic leader with an incredibly comprehensive background in major entertainment brands such as Viacom and Disney,” said Coker in a statement.

Thrift Hunters, the half-hour unscripted series which recently concluded its first season on Spike TV, has been renewed for a second season. Jason T. Smith and Bryan Goodman are scheduled to return as hosts of the series. 

Production will take place throughout the United States, as Smith and Goodman scour the country for the best deals on rare items that can later be put up for auction. 

Season two of Thrift Hunters seeks to improve upon the successful first season, which delivered Spike TV 1 million viewers. The network has ordered 10 new episodes. 

The series is executive produced by Jacquelin Bouchard and Sylvie Desrochers of Pixcom Productions with Nicola Merola and Cara Volchoff also serving in producing roles.