Warner Bros Discovery emerges as dark horse in negotiations for UFC rights in move that might further choke Toonami

[Jman]

 

The UFC rights come due this year, and while ESPN wants to keep the rights, several companies have also made bids.  Why does this matter to you?  Because if Warner Bros does buy the rights, and is showing Saturday cards, the reporting is that they're expected to shuffle a lot of their programming to minimize competition (for instance, moving AEW's Saturday night show to Thursday).  Toonami could be pushed further down the priority totem pole or even moved outright if they fear any audience cannibalization.

[Mr. Idea Box]

If Toonami moves at any point, would there be any place relocate if not for Saturday nights? I guess HBO Max is one way to put it, but I don't know any alternatives.

[Toonamiguy321]

Being realistic, is Toonami REALLY a competitor to AEW? Pretty much since the block came back, wrestling has always been cited as direct competition, but I have never really believed it. And it this point, we are talking about a block with one show barely over 100k viewers. 
 

I can’t really see WB being a genuine competitor at the negotiating table though. Not when you have to sit next to Amazon and Netflix. And they may not have the wallet size to compare, but UFC and ESPN aren’t going down without a fight either. 
 

50 minutes ago, Mr. Idea Box said:

If Toonami moves at any point, would there be any place relocate if not for Saturday nights? I guess HBO Max is one way to put it, but I don't know any alternatives.

I know we overreact about things here often, but a day shift is something I do not think Toonami could survive. It’s got 13 year old roots on Saturday nights, you can’t  just ask people to shift somewhere else. 

[Sketch]

6 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

Being realistic, is Toonami REALLY a competitor to AEW? Pretty much since the block came back, wrestling has always been cited as direct competition, but I have never really believed it. And it this point, we are talking about a block with one show barely over 100k viewers. 
 

I can’t really see WB being a genuine competitor at the negotiating table though. Not when you have to sit next to Amazon and Netflix. And they may not have the wallet size to compare, but UFC and ESPN aren’t going down without a fight either. 
 

I know we overreact about things here often, but a day shift is something I do not think Toonami could survive. It’s got 13 year old roots on Saturday nights, you can’t  just ask people to shift somewhere else. 

They tried to get people watching Friday evenings and we all saw how that went. Though they might have been successful enough if they were just airing old anime that was readily available to binge.

[Toonamiguy321]

6 minutes ago, Sketch said:

They tried to get people watching Friday evenings and we all saw how that went. Though they might have been successful enough if they were just airing old anime that was readily available to binge.

Well, Rewind had a lot of mismanagement that led to its failure, primarily the lack of interest in old anime. 
 

The Saturday block is just hard to relocate. It can’t be early due to (some) of its content. Dragonball Diaper would be fine at 5pm, Bleach not so much. And we know AS would never dream of giving up primetime hours anywhere, so it would have to go somewhere post midnight. Sunday-Thursday is a bust due to people working. Not gonna get people staying up till 3am when they gotta be up at 6am. That really only leaves Friday at midnight as an alternative. Maybe it could work but it would take months for people to form new habits and actually tune in regularly. 
 

Luckily I don’t see them landing UFC, so this is likely just a hypothetical scenario we never have to actually worry about. 

[Sketch]

Even if they did get UFC how often would it air after 12am anyway?

[Toonamiguy321]

1 hour ago, Sketch said:

Even if they did get UFC how often would it air after 12am anyway?

Not too frequently. Across the year we see various televised sports events that occasionally have an event run over midnight, but it’s never the norm. 

[Jman]

2 hours ago, Sketch said:

Even if they did get UFC how often would it air after 12am anyway?

UFC PPV's and west coast cards can sometimes end between 12am-1am on the East Coast depending on the start time.

3 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

Luckily I don’t see them landing UFC, so this is likely just a hypothetical scenario we never have to actually worry about. 

They are specifically being called out as the dark horse candidate, with the two front runners being Netflix and Amazon.  It would fit HBO Max going towards that older demographic though.