ONE Championship is projected to show exponential growth en route to a record-breaking year in 2017, according to data released by Nielsen, Facebook, and Repucom.
In addition, the recent ONE: KINGS OF DESTINY event at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila scored a 26 per cent peak TV ratings share in the Philippines. It means millions of Filipinos tuned in to see Eduard Folayang defend his ONE Lightweight World Championship, and ONE Championship chairman Chatri Sityodtong was delighted with the figures.
“Numbers don’t lie. We broke all records with a 26 per cent peak TV ratings share as per Nielsen. Those numbers are massive. It means one in four Filipinos who were watching TV were watching ONE Championship,” said Sityodtong. “For perspective, last year, the UFC’s biggest show (McGregor vs Alvarez) did a roughly 6-7 per cent ratings share in the Philippines.”
It is part of a pattern that has seen ONE Championship’s viewership figures increase dramatically. In 2014, the promotion’s peak TV ratings share was 1-2 per cent, but as the organisation approaches the midway point of 2017, that is projected to hit 11-20 per cent, a dramatic spike in the size of the television audience watching across Asia.
There has been a similar increase in terms of social media metrics. According to an infographic recently released by the organisation, in 2014, ONE Championship generated 312,000 video views, and that number is estimated to hit 314 million this year.
Sityodtong believes this trajectory is set to steepen over the course of the coming years.
“I started ONE Championship with the vision of creating Asia’s first multi-billion dollar sports media property,” he said. “There is no question that ONE Championship is on track to achieve that goal. If you look around the world, there is no sports media property with our trajectory of growth across key metrics like ratings, broadcast hours, social media engagement, broadcast footprint, and broadcast reach.”
ONE Championship was founded in 2011, and has held 54 events in 11 different countries so far. The promotion has signed some of the best combat sports athletes in the world including Ben Askren, Bibiano Fernandes, and Marat Gafurov as well as providing a platform for homegrown Asian stars such as Eduard Folayang and Angela Lee. All of them are currently reigning World Champions in the organisation.
The formula of mixing homegrown Asian fighters with established international stars has proven to be successful, and Sityodtong sees enormous potential for further growth.
“ONE Championship is one of the world’s hottest sports media properties – bar none. And the crazy thing is that we are only at the beginning. There are 4 billion people in Asia. The potential is massive.”
