UFC announces new media deals in Japan

By Thomas Casale January 26, 2011The UFC's presence in Japan is about to get bigger. At a press conference on Monday, UFC officials announced deals with TV Bank Corp. and Hikari TV. The deal with TV Bank Corp. puts the UFC's official mobile site on all three major Japanese cell phone carriers. The latter agreement will put live and archived UFC bouts on Hikari TV. Both deals will go into place on Feb. 1. "Today is a very important step in expanding our media platforms to bring the UFC to more Japanese fans than ever before," Mark Fischer, UFC Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Asia, stated. "We want to make sure that any fan who wants to watch the UFC has the best access they can and, at the same time, reach new fans." The TV Bank Corp. deal puts the UFC mobile site on NTT Docomo, KDD AU and Softbank, the top cellular carriers in Japan. Most content will be free but some premium content will be available for pay. The deal with Hikari T...