UFC Fight Night 46 Breaks Terrestrial TV Record As 600,000 Tune In To Watch

UFC Fight Night 46 went down in Dublin, Ireland this past Saturday (July 19, 2014) and delivered in a big way all round. The home town favorites were all party to huge wins, the crowd was absolutely electrifying, and the event was a smash hit for numbers. The live gate was huge, and Dana White said that the event was the biggest Fight Pass show to date.

With PPV-style numbers in attendance, it seems that Fight Night 46 was the best event Ireland has ever seen. In fact, it broke yet another record; the show was the most viewed sports event in television network E3’s history. Enterntainment.Ie had the scoop:

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A peak audience of 340,200 was recorded for the event, while 257,500 viewers tuned in to watch Conor McGregor defeat Diego Brandao in the evening’s main event, a 21% share of the available audience. It took in a 36.69% share of men 15-34 and, perhaps more impressively, a 43.33% share for adults aged 15-24. 3e posted an all-day share of 10.15% of available viewers aged 15-44 throughout the day – the highest of any television station in Ireland on Saturday.”

For the television networks, Conor McGregor and the UFC plan for global expansion; this is absolutely huge. This could be the start of many more epic events in Ireland, let alone Europe, and the exposure that the sport garnered on Saturday is nearly unparalleled. TV exec Jeff Ford discussed the event and TV3/E3’s relationship with the UFC:

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“3e was the first broadcaster to take the plunge and broadcast UFC Live and Free to Air and the feedback from our viewers has been great”, Ford said. “We would like to thank our friends and colleagues from the Ultimate Fighting Championship for their support and help and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them in the future.”

‘The Notorious’ may well have just sealed the deal as a UFC mainstay, and why not? Performance aside, this guy has just built bridges to Ireland for the UFC, sold out an arena twice over, forged connections and broke records with the terrestrial television networks. If anything, Conor McGregor may well be the younger, less roided, and more Irish version of Chael Sonnen!