Jake’s Takes | The return of BT Box Office for UFC 280 is completely unnecessary

I distinctly remember the day that BT Box Office was introduced to the MMA world. BT Sport had controlled the British and Irish broadcasting rights for the UFC for 6 years, by that point. They announced that UFC 239, an International Fight Week card, would be shown on BT Box Office. This meant that an additional paywall would be required to watch the main card.

This wouldn’t be the norm for all cards, however. BT ensured that only a number of high-profile cards would be behind a paywall of £20/€25.

The outrage from fans was swift and fierce. One particular petition to boycott BT’s practices was signed by over 1,700 fans and hashtags circulated the web. I detailed the reactions of journalists, fans and the like in an article, while the announcement was still fresh. It’s safe to say that BT Box Office wasn’t a concept that MMA fans were welcoming with open arms.

More than 3 years on from that day 2019, it seemed that the pay-per-view format was slowly dying. It had only been used 5 times – all of which were headlined by either Conor McGregor or Khabib Nurmagomedov – after UFC 239 and continued to receive poor reception from fans.

Ahead of UFC 280, it was revealed that this highly anticipated card would be shown through BT Box Office. To say that the reaction was anything but sweet is an understatement. The sentiments surrounding this method, which seemed to fade with time, have massively resurfaced.

The main gripe that fans have with this is because of the other sacrifices that we have to make. Only for a handful of exceptions, every numbered event’s main card begins at 3am GMT. It has become common knowledge that European fans have to stay up until outrageous hours to get through an entire card. In the upcoming case of UFC 280, the main card will be on at primetime (7pm GMT).

Financially, BT Box Office events can be very taxing for fans. Though it may only come to £20/€22.50 per event, the subscription to BT Sport costs an additional £16/€18.20 per month. Throw in an additional charge for whatever TV provider the consumer is with and the bills begin to pile up. The cost of living crises that are going on in the UK and Ireland are leaving lots of fans without as much disposable income, making the decision all the more baffling to me. The costs, coupled with the late hours, is the main reason that we continue to see the pirating of UFC events increase.

UFC 280, headlined by Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev, will be the second event on BT Box Office to not feature McGregor or Nurmagomedov. The first was the debuting event, UFC 239, which reportedly did not garner many buys. Since then, all BT Box Office events have been headlined by the aforementioned former champions, seeing as they are two of the highest-selling fighters in history.

It’s interesting to see BT capitalising on the hype for UFC 280 by reintroducing this method for events that did not have major drawing power in the main event. Neither Oliveira or Makhachev have shown evidence of drawing power in the UK/Ireland. The anticipation is from the its’ stacked nature (despite its’ lack of mainstream stars) and the fact that it’s happening at primetime. The historically negative reception to this broadcasting method doesn’t imply good results to come this time, especially when neither McGregor or Nurmagomedov are involved.

As someone involved in the media side of the MMA world, it’s honestly saddening to see BT get so much bad publicity. They are, far and away, the best mainstream source for MMA content in the UK/Ireland. Their employees produce some of the very best original series for television and social media. Former fighters Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy & award-winning journalists Adam Catterall, Nick Peet and Ariel Helwani are all personalities that often work with BT for their UFC content. I want to see the company thrive and, like many aspiring journalists, hope to find myself working with them some day.

The potential of making a small lump of money doesn’t outweight the probable risk of losing fans, in my opinion. Am I a financial advisor or marketing genius? No, and I won’t claim to be. What I do know is that the British and Irish markets for MMA are growing more with every day. If the UFC wants to continue to grow in this regions, they need to make sure that they aren’t overloading their fans with burdens. Should BT continue to intergrate a pay-per-view system into their broadcasting format, they could be turning more and more customers away.

Like my fellow fans, I want to see the BT Box Office slowly fade into hazy memory that we look back on in years on. There’s no need for unnecessary paywalls plague our thriving sport.

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What do you make of this? Will this push you away from BT Sport? Let us know in the comments!