HDNet Buys What’s Left of the IFL

(These fond memories now belong to HDNet.)

In an apparent attempt to bolster their MMA content, HDNet has purchased the IFL’s remains for $650,000. The purchase includes the IFL’s video library, their brand name, intellectual property, as well as some of their liabilities. Since the IFL hasn’t put on a show since May, and since much of their 2008 season was broadcast on HDNet anyway, the question we have to ask regarding this purchase is, now what?

Not that the IFL didn’t put on some good fights, but how much is old fight footage really worth? With the exception of the really good bouts, watching old fights can be a lot like watching old college football games on ESPN Classic, which is to say it appeals to a very select audience, mostly the unemployed and the very, very drunk, either of whom are likely to think they’re watching live TV.

But HDNet seems too savvy to pay that much for a bunch of old fights that have already been aired on Fox Sports Net and MyNetwork, not to mention spread around the internet. So what do you have up your sleeve, HDNet? Don’t tell me you paid more than half a million dollars just to air Chris Horodecki highlights in between old episodes of Hogan’s Heroes. All right, I admit I’d watch that.