Irish free-to-air channel 3e agrees partnership with UFC

Irish free-to-air broadcaster 3e has today announced that they have signed “an exciting new broadcast deal” with UFC for this Autumn after achieving ratings success with over 600k people tuning in to watch UFC Fight Night Dublin back in July.

The statement reads as follows: “3e have announced an exciting new broadcast deal with The Ultimate Fighting Championship as part of its 2014 Autumn Schedule.

It means that various UFC fights will be broadcast to a terrestrial audience in Ireland as the popularity of the sport continues to grow.

The announcement comes after the UFC Fight Night Dublin event in July became the highest-rated sporting event in 3e’s history, reaching 600,000 viewers.

That marked the first time a UFC event was broadcast to a terrestrial audience in Ireland, and featured Dubliner Conor McGregor wowing his hometown audience with a first round win against Brazil’s Diego Brandao.

McGregor’s next fight is set to take place at the UFC 178 event in Las Vegas on September 27th against American Dustin Poirier.

In the build-up to July’s UFC Fight Night Dublin event Garry Cook, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of UFC Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: “The popularity of the UFC in Ireland continues to grow at an enormous rate. We are confident that this is only the beginning of things to come for our sport in Ireland.”

We’re looking forward to seeing more of McGregor and other UFC stars grace the 3e screens in the future, when more details are announced shortly.”

Source: 3e

UPDATE: Sources tell us that the 3e deal will be a highlights show, most likely on Monday night following events. The events will continue to air live exclusively on BT Sport and FightPass in Ireland and UK.