UFC programming to air in China!

By The Fight Nerd on Jun 29, 2009 in News

The UFC is soon heading to start airing their brand in China, a country who is just beginning to get their feet wet in MMA. White has previously announced plans to hold an event in the Phillipines and it seems the UFC is growing more and more internationally each day, already having held events in Ireland, England, and Germany. Below is the official press release.

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – As one of the birthplaces of martial arts, China is rightfully considered to be hallowed ground for the warriors of the Ultimate Fighting Championship®. Today, UFC® is pleased to announce a television deal with Inner Mongolia Television that will mark the first time in history UFC will be seen on TV in China, continuing the global expansion of the premier brand in mixed martial arts.

“Obviously China is a huge market and the Chinese understand the martial arts probably better than anyone else in the world. It’s a no brainer that UFC programming will be appreciated in China, and will become a big hit for the NMTV network,” said Dana White, UFC President.

Inner Mongolia Television, known as NMTV, is a network broadcast station available in 80 million households, with the potential to reach 240 million viewers throughout all the provinces of China. Starting this month, NMTV will air up to 16 hours of UFC programming per month, including the trademark shows The Ultimate Fighter®, UFC® Unleashed™ and UFC® All Access™, with an option to air recent UFC pay-per-view event telecasts.

With this deal, NMTV will air between one to four hours of UFC programming each week on Saturday and Sundays between 1:30 – 5:30pm local time, broadcast in languages specific to each province.

UFC television programming can be seen in over 100 countries and territories worldwide in 17 different languages. UFC is the largest pay-per-view content provider in the world and is the fastest growing sports organization in history.

This is great news for Asian fans of the sport, lets just hope this means that the UFC might want to set foot back into Japan one day soon!