How Big a Deal is The Elite XC/CBS Union?
Published by on March 3rd, 2008 in Operation Cleanup

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By Charles Jay

I really mean it when I ask that question.

I don’t know that this is something to get excited about in terms of it being a grand triumph for mixed martial arts. Remember that this is a deal that is the product of corporate incest, if you will. Showtime is an “investor” in the Elite XC promotion, according to their press reports. Since CBS, like Showtime, is owned by Viacom, basically it’s a company giving airtime to itself.

Furthermore, since all indications are the same crew that does the announcing for the Showtime dates will also do them on CBS. That means a lot of shameless shilling, which I would be embarrassed about if I was a programming director. especially since it is in prime time. But hey – haven’t you experienced times when a brother or a cousin has embarrased you? Sometimes you just have to suck it up and hope that nobody makes an issue out of it (okay, too late). And besides, we’ve got reality TV, so ’nuff said.

It was reported on at least one internet website that this was, in some way, a time buy. And that just didn’t make any sense to me. It would be like taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the another. That’s a completely cosmetic transaction. Certainly it’s a story that CBS wouldn’t want to circulate, because it would leave the impression that they don’t have all the confidence in the world in the product. As it is, they are simply allocating the time to themselves.

Chris Albrecht, who works for the mammoth sports management company International Management Group (IMG), is supposedly a key player in this deal. Albrecht was formerly Chairman and CEO of HBO, that is, until he was basically pushed out after, in the words of Business Week, “alledgedly assaulting a female companion” in Las Vegas in May of last year. He was arrested for it, and shortly therefter he left HBO. He wrote this memo to HBO staff members:

“Two years ago, I decided that I could handle drinking again. Clearly, I was wrong. Given that truth, I have committed myself to sobriety. I intend to take a temporary leave of absence from HBO effective today, in order to go back to working with AA.”

Albrecht was a big fan of mixed martial arts, and in his waning days at HBO he tried to push through a deal to bring the UFC to the network. But he was the lone advocate, and in fact had encroached upon the authority of the people at HBO Sports to get the agreement done, pushing aside their resistance. Without Albrecht around, that chances for that deal faded fast.

HBO was going to pay a lot of money for the rights to three or four UFC shows, and if they were successful, they were going to pay a lot more. But it didn’t happen.

When something like that DOES happen, it will be a huge step forward for mixed martial arts.

Oh, also when things like who controls the production are no longer an stumbling block. But that’s a more lengthy discussion for another time.