The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Bellator's Move to Friday Nights

Fresh off the completion of its fifth season, Bellator Fighting Championships has announced plans for its sixth season in 2012. Most notably, the promotion will shift from its current Saturday night timeslot to Friday nights, beginning March 2. The promotion will continue to be shown live on MTV2 and EPIX (HD).

Season six will include five separate tournaments, four of which have been revealed. Currently on deck are featherweights, lightweights, welterweights and middleweights. A fifth and final weight division is expected to be announced shortly.

With the announcement, let's take a look at what this all means for the rising promotion.

Rob Tatum is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. You can also find Rob’s work at TheMMACorner.com. For anything related to MMA, you can follow Rob on Twitter @RobTatumMMA.

The Good

A move to Friday night means that Bellator will no longer be forced to go head-to-head with UFC pay-per-views. Fans won’t be in the unfortunate position of having to choose which event to watch. 

Also, Bellator will no longer have to manipulate their start times in order to prevent overlap with the other promotions. The consistent, every week approach is sure to benefit the view rates and keep fans coming back for the product.

Finally, during the fall, the promotion will avoid losing viewers to college football games.

The Bad

Although the switch is positive on the whole, the promotion will yet again be forced to battle with UFC programming. With the UFC moving to the Fox networks in 2012, it will begin airing live events on Friday nights, beginning with UFC on FX 1 on Jan. 20. 

Furthermore, the famed reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, will undergo formatting changes and is expected to air live fights on Friday nights. While these events may not pull away as many viewers as the pay-per-view events, Bellator will still be forced to compete with the larger promotion on a regular basis.

The Ugly

Despite the announcement, the promotion is still only broadcast on MTV2 and Epix. The HD feed on Epix is not carried by DirecTV, Comcast or Cablevision   

While Bellator is slated to move to Spike TV in 2013, Spike’s contractual obligations with the departing UFC prevent a move from happening before then. 

As a result, many fans will continue to be stuck watching the promotion in standard definition.