Viacom’s Bellator MMA is looking to start the year off with a bang in a move to continue the promotion’s recent surges in ratings, attendance, and international expansion in 2016. The promotion will be hitting the Forum in Los Angeles on Saturday with Bellator 170: Ortiz vs. Sonnen, offered on SPIKE at 9p, with over 140 countries now among its audience. Cynopsis Sports spoke with Bellator MMA President Scott Coker about the company’s growth, its plans for NYC and his invitation to Meryl Streep.

Coker on 2016: Our goals included going out into the free agency market and trying to sign as many free agents that we wanted. We were very successful at that and probably got 90% of the names that we wanted to bring in. We were going after guys that could move the needle for us. So we had a great year. That other goal was to build from the bottom up, and we went after a lot of the top wrestlers who were world-class athletes. We are now developing a great crop of new fighters from the ground up. We also had a goal to expand internationally, which we accomplished, and we ended up doing fights in Israel, London, Ireland, Italy and more. This year, we will probably do between eight and ten fights internationally.

On adding New York: New York is something that is really important to the company, as we are based in the state. But we couldn’t get in there for such a long time, and now that it’s open, while we aren’t going to rush there, I think it is safe to say that probably around the summer, we will likely have one of the biggest events ever for the company at one of the two venues in New York City.

On the launch of Bellator Kickboxing: It is doing extremely well for us, especially in Europe. There are some countries where kickboxing is more popular than MMA. So by offering those territories a dual-package, they really appreciate having the option. I was talking to a broadcaster in the Netherlands, and they told me that while MMA is growing there, it still isn’t nearly as popular as kickboxing so would we be able to bring the sport there first, before bringing MMA there.

On digital: That’s one of the great things about working with Viacom in that there are so many smart people working on new technology. Every time I go up to the offices, they have something else they want to show me. We are launching a new app here soon that will be state-of-the-art, which I am very excited about.

On his invitation to Meryl Streep: People think that my invitation to her (following the Golden Globes) was some kind of stunt, but it really wasn’t. I get the politics of her speech, but this was something that was very near and dear to my heart. To say that it is not an art-form is incorrect, that’s why they call it martial arts. The community spoke about it, even those that agreed with the rest of her speech. Needless to say, the offer still stands and I will have an empty seat next to me at the fight in case she shows up.

Meanwhile, the Steelers’ squeaker over the Chiefs handed a Total Audience Delivery of 37.4 million viewers across NBC and NBC Sports Digital platforms, according to Nielsen Fast National data and digital data from Adobe Analytics. The NBC-only broadcast, the first-ever Sunday NFL Playoff game to kick off after 8p, averaged 37.1 million viewers, marking the most-watched primetime game ever in the NFL’s Divisional and Wild Card Playoff rounds and ranking as the best for a Sunday primetime program on any network since Super Bowl 50.

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football selected Lagardere Sports to market the Confederation’s media rights for all International territories The decision comes following a bidding process managed by Evolution Media Capital on behalf of CONCACAF with the package including the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournaments in 2017 and 2019. “As we continue to expand the international broadcast reach of our tournaments to meet growing demand internationally, we are happy to embark on this partnership with Lagardère Sports,” said CONCACAF General Secretary Philippe Moggio. “This is an exciting time for CONCACAF and international football viewers around the world.”

FOX Sports announced that FS1’s NASCAR Race Hub will come from Houston, site of Super Bowl LI, in the week leading into FOX’s live broadcast of the game. Programming will see live coverage from Discovery Green starting Jan 30 at 6p on the network.

In Las Vegas, newbie NHL franchise the Golden Knights are currently in talks with Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket about TV rights to games, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Both regional networks already have NHL teams as part of their inventory  FSW with the Los Angeles Kings and Prime Ticket with the Anaheim Ducks. Meanwhile, the team is also in talks with Lotus Broadcasting for radio rights to the contets.

Meanwhile, multiple reports have the Oakland Raiders "close" to filing for relocation to Las Vegas, well before the Feb. 15 deadline for a potential move. The Raiders could become the third NFL franchise to move from an established market in the past year.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

FOX is opening the doors to digital-only ad packages for the Super Bowl. Reuters writes that the deals would be priced at $700,000 for a 30-second spot and marks a change from CBS’ take a year ago in which ads were only offered to markers who already booked space on TV. Fox Sports president Eric Shanks said that “the unit price we are getting for the digital stream only is as high or higher than almost all primetime programs.”

Elsewhere in the Super Bowl mix, building material supplier 84 Lumber will advertise the first time in the game. The spot will mark the first commercial for the brand in the Super Bowl.

Furniture Row Racing locked in Auto-Owners Insurance for a multi-year primary sponsorship for Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Cup Series for races in Kansas, Michigan, Indianapolis, Richmond, Charlotte and Phoenix.

League of Legends saw over a billion hours of content viewers in 2016, almost double its closest competitor. Gamoloco data in partnership with PVP Live ranked the year’s top games on Twitch with the Riot title easily claiming the top spot, followed by CS:GO, Dota 2, Hearthstone, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Minecraft, Destiny and H1Z1.

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Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What figure skater dominated the sport in the 80s by winning the world championship four times in addition to her two Olympic gold medals? Answer: Katarina Witt. Kudos: Andreas Droste-Time Inc./NY; Traci Liner-WME/IMG/NY; Phyllis McQuillan-MSG Media/NY; David Kalan-MLB Advanced Media/NY; Bob Eisenstaedt-Granite Springs Productions/Tampa; Jerry A. Kapner-Kapner Group/Montclair-Pamela Wise-The E.W. Scripps Company/Cincinnati; Matt Marini-MLB Network/NJ; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Dory Petsrillo-CoxReps/Dallas; David Hauptman/Denver; Matt Sautter-Imagine Communications/Denver; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions/Santa Monica; Steve Morrow-Eclipse TV/Mill Valley; Jim Himmel-TCB Media/San Clemente; Max Eberle/Las Vegas.

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
01.17.17

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