Fuji TV cans Pride
It looks like the rumors that Fuju TV was going to kill its TV deal with Pride were true. Zach Arnold is reporting that Fuji TV has terminated its contract with Pride, and removed the Pride page drom the Fuji TV official web site. Moreover, according to Arnold, appears that the alleged Yakuza connections of DSE (Pride's owner) played a role in the termination.
Arnold is not kidding when he says that, "PRIDE could be in major trouble." I do not pretend to know anything about the Japanese television market, or whether another network is likely to step up and replace Fuji TV. But you have to wonder how long Pride - the world's premier MMA promotion - will last without a television deal.
Update 6/5: It looks like there's good reason to be concerned. Zack Arnold says the Japanese media is questioning whether Pride will be able to continue paying the foreign fighters' salaries without the Fuji TV money.
Update 6/6: Still nothing reported on Sherdog, MMA Weekly or Full Contact Fighter. You would think the big MMA news sites would be all over this.
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Arnold is not kidding when he says that, "PRIDE could be in major trouble." I do not pretend to know anything about the Japanese television market, or whether another network is likely to step up and replace Fuji TV. But you have to wonder how long Pride - the world's premier MMA promotion - will last without a television deal.
Update 6/5: It looks like there's good reason to be concerned. Zack Arnold says the Japanese media is questioning whether Pride will be able to continue paying the foreign fighters' salaries without the Fuji TV money.
Update 6/6: Still nothing reported on Sherdog, MMA Weekly or Full Contact Fighter. You would think the big MMA news sites would be all over this.
I'm shocked - that they got caught, that is.
Posted by Eddie Goldman | 6/05/2006 2:10 PM