Bellator Fighting Championships' preliminary-card streams on Spike.com are now available worldwide.
Just prior to its season-five debut this past week, Bellator announced the streaming deal with Spike.com, which puts each event's untelevised preliminary card on a live web stream.
However, the Bellator 49 stream was limited to the U.S.
But today, officials announced a change.
"Bellator prelims will be on Spike.com worldwide starting this Saturday," the company tweeted.
That's particularly good news ahead of Saturday's Bellator 50 event, which takes place at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. While the opening round of the season-five middleweight tournament fills the MTV2-televised main card (7 p.m. ET/PT), a deep, eight-fight preliminary card is featured on the Spike.com stream (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT).
Notables on the Bellator 50 preliminary card include recent "E:60" subject Rad Martinez, who takes on former Marine Brian Van Hoven. Additionally, former Bellator tourney competitor Luis Palomino meets Edson Berto.
As MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) recently reported, the Spike.com streams are likely a precursor to a full Bellator move to Spike TV. The basic-cable channel ends its live-event broadcasts with the UFC in 2012. Additionally, if the UFC buys back its library and shifts that content to FOX, which recently signed a seven-year deal with the UFC (for content on FOX, FX and FUEL TV) in 2012, Bellator's live shows could move to Spike TV, a sister property of MTV2.
Source: Bellator expands Spike.com preliminary-card streams to worldwide audiences
