The UFC’s relationship with the Walt Disney Company-owned ESPN has been fruitful for both entities. According to Disney’s Fiscal First Quarter 2020 Financial Results, it was revealed that the return of Conor McGregor brought in “about a million pay-per-view purchases and a half a million new subscribers” per CEO Robert Iger.
The PPV benchmark would be the first time that a UFC PPV on ESPN + has delivered 1 million buys. Although we don’t know the specifics of other PPVs on ESPN+, one might deduce if that they had previously drew 1 million buys, it would have been announced by either the UFC or ESPN. The 1 million buys speak to the drawing power of the company’s biggest draw: Conor McGregor.
On a broader level, ESPN+ has secured over 7.6 million subscribers in the U.S., more than doubling its paid customer base from the 3.5 million announced at the beginning of November. In speaking with investors on February 4th according to sportspromedia.com, Iger stated that ESPN+ gained an additional 500,000 new subscribers for McGregor’s return to the UFC.
Payout Perspective:
Even though the financial news also revealed Disney is paying more for the production and marketing of the UFC (see below), the payoff has given the company a boost with its digital platform, ESPN+.
Along with Top Rank and PFL, the content for ESPN+ has been robust. But, the news that McGregor moved the needle so much for the platform, speaks volumes to his draw and appeal.
Things aren’t as bright as they might seem at ESPN. As reported by Rich Greenfield, the mother ship is losing subscribers.
In addition, despite the dramatic rise in subscribers, Greenfield states that the platform is losing money. With regard to the news that + has 7.6 million viewers, it is still losing money.
As noted above, operating costs have gone up for products such as the UFC, but some of the cost is being negated but the subscriptions. Of course, ‘churn,’ the act of subscribing and then unsubscribing is a viable concern. Although McGregor drew 500,000 viewers, how many have stayed on to witness UFC 247? Its not clear, but this is something worthy to keep track of for next quarter’s financial call.
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