Bellator and MTV2

Bloody Elbow’s Luke Thomas brings up a good point about a lack of providers having MTV2 in HD. I don’t have it on Time Warner Cable. Some people probably won’t mind. Heck, the people that waited until local FSN college volleyball highlight shows ended to see the Bellator cards this year will still tune into MTV2. But while MTV2 has a young audience, will they care about MMA?

MTV makes their living off cheap reality television. MTV2 makes their living off reruns of that cheap reality programming. The one good sign might be the fact that Bully Beatdown has turned into a minor hit that they could use to push the sports programming on MTV2. Then there’s the built in violence and competition on the Real World/Road Rules Challenges. A prefight show hosted by C.T. might draw some attention from non-MMA fans.

The truth is, anything short of an ESPN deal and people are going to criticize Bellator. As recently as last week, FX was the rumored network Bellator would be joining forces with, but FX is less of a sports channel than MTV2. (Though they are in HD)

I have no idea if this is going to help increase Bellator’s visibility, but in the end, live fights in standard definition are superior to tape-delay fights in HD. The fact that fans will know where to find the promotion every single week is a step in the right direction.

Here’s a “fan made” UFC 125 promo that is a Jersey Shore spoof. Maybe MTV and MMA are meant to be?