UFC And Spike TV Launch UltimateFighter.com

[keithlewis]

UFC And Spike TV Launch UltimateFighter.com

New York, NY, March 25, 2010 – The Ultimate Fighting Championship® and Spike TV, a division of MTVN Entertainment Group, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), have joined forces in a new digital partnership and announced today the launch of UltimateFighter.com. The ad-supported website will feature every episode, every fight and every fighter from all 10 seasons of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which premiered on Spike in January 2005. The launch of UltimateFighter.com marks the first time that complete UFC fights are available on the Web for free in an ad-supported model and it is the first vertical website launched for a Spike TV series. Both UFC.com and Spike.com will redirect all traffic related to “The Ultimate Fighter” to the new site.

“UltimateFighter.com gives fight fans a place to go to for anything and everything about ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ the show that opened up our sport to the mainstream and became the proving ground for some of the biggest names in the UFC,” said Dana White, UFC president.

“The TUF website is a brilliant addition to our portfolio of deep, engaging vertical properties within the MTVN Entertainment Group,” said Erik Flannigan, executive vice president, digital media, MTVN Entertainment Group. “The UFC and Spike are powerful and collaborative partners on air and we are thrilled to be doing the same across digital platforms. For millions of fans, UltimateFighter.com unlocks what they have long been searching for on the web: the fights that launched the careers of their favorite fighters.”

“The Ultimate Fighter” alumni include Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, Matt Serra, Diego Sanchez, Michael Bisping, Nate Diaz, Kenny Florian, Roy Nelson and Kimbo Slice.

Ultimatefighter.com unlocks a video-rich experience that UFC fans have been waiting for, with over 1000 clips, full episodes and other video assets from all 10 seasons of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Every knockout, submission and fight finish from the series can be viewed through the site’s annotated video player, which houses all 231 complete fights that aired on TUF. That number includes the full fight cards of all ten season finales.

For the new season, the site will offer an unprecedented amount of original programming from “The Ultimate Fighter 11: Team Liddell vs. Team Ortiz,” with in-depth editorial coverage, video exclusives, even fights that didn’t make it to air in their entirety. The site is also the new home of “The Aftermath,” the web-only show that breaks down and discusses every episode of the series with the fighters themselves. “The Aftermath” is hosted by “Ultimate Fighter” season 1 finalist Stephan Bonnar, and Dana White will again be the first guest on the premiere episode which is sponsored by The Marines.

The site also features direct integration with social networks, connecting fans to the real-time discussion going on about the series and the UFC via Twitter, as well as content sharing and community building around “The Ultimate Fighter” on Facebook.

Spike TV is the television home of the UFC, the premier mixed martial organization in the world, featuring such highly rated series as “The Ultimate Fighter,” “UFC Primetime,” “UFC Fight Night,” “UFC Unleashed,” “UFC Countdown,” “Ultimate Knockouts,” among others.

Burger King, the Marines and TapouT are sponsors for the new UltimateFighter.com.