Zuffa is reportedly negotiating to buy G4, the video game themed cable television channel, in a split from Spike TV, who would pick up Bellator to replace the UFC's MMA programming. The UFC's presence on Spike would end once the fourteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter completes later this year. G4 is a sister channel of Versus who recently picked up live UFC events. DirecTV dropped G4 from their broadcast catalog citing low viewership. This news is coming from The Wall Street Journal (link). UFC TV? Possible. Zuffa has a huge library of fights and events including everything from the UFC, PRIDE, and now Strikeforce, along with a number of original shows including thirteen seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. G4 doesn't exactly have a lot of great programming (Attack of the Show and X-Play being their tent poles) so it is hard to say whether Zuffa would try to keep anything from the channel should they decide to buy it out.
Surprised no one ever thought of this when discussing the UFC getting some cable/network TV deal the last few years. Seems like it has potential to be a very savvy move. I don't think they could just show MMA all day but they certainly have the library to add a couple decent shows with their back catalog of fights. And then you've got TUF and maybe they can ramp up production of 'Primetime'. Just can't see a whole channel of MMA really. Can TUF and periodic UFC cards carry a TV network? Maybe they make a sort of hybrid of Spike (TV "for men") and a combat sport/extreme sport version of ESPN? I would imagine they would get some other sports involved though- boxing? Arena football? Something.
