# Viacom buys Bellator, plans 2013 start on Spike



## Guy Incognito (Apr 3, 2010)

> MTV Networks' Spike TV channel is getting out of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's business, but the broadcaster has increased its ties to mixed martial arts.
> 
> Viacom, parent of MTV Networks, bought a majority stake in Bellator Fighting Championships and will start airing the promotion's bouts on Spike in 2013, the companies told USA TODAY this week. They've had ongoing talks for about a year as they finished up various deals, and over the past month finally reached the point where they could announce the news, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said.
> 
> ...


Great News. the rest of the article is here.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/mma/...s-bellator-plans-2013-start-on-spike/558003/1


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## Roflcopter (Sep 5, 2008)

Props to Rebney. He was a distant 5th when he started this thing up, now he's all the way up to number 2.


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## Toxic (Mar 1, 2007)

Spike TV are either really smart or really shady or a mix of both. When they started up the paid to get WWE then when the contract came up they dumped them and picked up TNA to fill there slot. Now they are doing the same with the UFC and Bellator hoping to pull a bait and switch and people will be stole away or become a fan of the new product. It must have worked for them last time but I'm not sure how I feel about doing it to a company that helped make you. Spike has been far more synonymous with the UFC than vice versa latelyl


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## joshua7789 (Apr 25, 2009)

I dont really follow pro wrestling, how has TNA stacked up against the WWE? I would imagine that we will see a similar deal with Bellator going against the UFC now that they are on Spike. Also, according the Dana Whites twitter, he has known about this deal for months, apparently it just becamse official.


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## Thelegend (Nov 2, 2009)

i just hope bellator doesn't get messed with by spike. i like what they do on mtv already.

what i think is funny however is that i dont watch spike for anything other than mma so if they ever didnt have it, it would be similar to hgtv-never watched.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

I think Spike and Viacom will let Rebney run Bellator the way he has been. No point in trying to fix something that isn't broken. Spike was smart in letting UFC run on its own.


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