The UFC announced that it will move all of its media to Paramount in 2026 with all of its numbered events airing on its digital network and CBS. Its Fight Nights will air on the digital platform.
The deal is worth $1.1 billion over 7 years starting in 2026. It effectively ends the UFC’s relationship with ESPN. Ironically, last week, WWE sold its PLE (Premium Live Events which used to be Pay-Per-Views) events to ESPN as part of its latest Direct-to-Consumer creation for $325M per year for 5 years.
The move effectively ends the UFC PPV model and allows the company to air all of its content on Paramount. In an interview with CNBC extolling the significance of the deal, Mark Shaprio indicated that UFC numbered events (PPVs) would air on network television. Thus, the reach of the audience would be much larger than under a PPV model. The company also chided the PPV model stating it was “antiquated.”
Notably, the UFC PPV model may have been a significant hurdle for many fans throughout the 2000s until the present day. Many complained about the rise in prices as well. When ESPN took over the media rights deal PPVs were $59.99 in addition to having a subscription to ESPN+. It then raised them to $69.99 and finally to its current price point of $79.99.
With the new deal, one need only subscribe to Paramount+ to obtain UFC content. Current price point is for $7.99 per month or $12.99 per month without ads. One would assume that this price point goes up once the UFC establishes itself in 2026.
So why the pivot from PPV? One may argue lower buy rates may make the move elementary for the UFC. Meaning, the amount of money the company made in PPV sales was negligible to the amount of money they could make through a subscription service. Also, the UFC live events and sponsorships have grown exponentially which compensated for the lag in PPV. The UFC has a firm grip on the A18-49 demo. It has expanded its portfolio of sponsors to include IBM and Meta. Dana White has established himself as one of the biggest power brokers not in just sports, but in the world. He sits on the board of Meta and has the ear of the president.
Pay-Per-View capitalizes on a special event and the UFC charged a premium 13 times a year for big events. With the Paramount deal one does not have to do that anymore. It seems like a bargain at this point for the consumer, but so did ESPN’s deal.
Looking at the purchase, one has to wonder if the Paramount deal happened due to its merger with SkyDance Media. That merger, which closed last week was for $8 billion, gave Paramount the necessary capital to seek out the UFC.
There was discussions that the UFC would go with Netflix as it was perfect for the company looking for a “global footprint,” as Dana White said last month. Notably, streaming platforms with a global footprint was my choice for where the UFC would go. So, Netlix, YouTube or Amazon Prime fit that mold. There was also the potential to split its media rights like WWE has done and it had done in the past. In the end, it didn’t seem like a necessity as Paramount has less of a base than either of the 3 but.
Notably, the international media rights were left untouched although Paramount will get the right to secure those first before anyone else.
But, if there’s anything to takeaway from this deal, is that the UFC got what it wanted which was $1 Billion a year for its media rights. One has to think this was the best deal without concessions.
As an aside, the death of PPV also means Dana does not have to chase pirates across the web.
Another question coming out of the deal is whether the content will be water-down. The thinking behind this is if there will be no incentive to sell a PPV event because consumers will get it with their description. Hence, there is less negotiation leverage for an upper-tier fighter to take a fight. Certainly, lower and mid-card fighters will want to fight as much as possible to make money, but we may no longer see numbered event cards with dual title fights on them to boost the entertainment value of the card.
For Paramount, it gives them a centerpiece to grow its subscription base. Paramount has 77.5 million subscribers. In comparison, Amazon Prime has 220 million subscribers. Netflix had 301 million as of its last count at the end of 2024 (it no longer reveals its subscribers). It has a lot of room to grow if you are being positive about those numbers.
For the UFC, Dana got his $1B per year benchmark. We shall see what he has in store for the company in 2026.
Leave a Reply