The UFC has engraved a massive seven-year contract, over $7 billion, to start all programming in 2026.
The owners of TKO Group Holdings’ UFC routinely praised their collaboration with ESPN in the course of the transaction, but are seeking five million contracts to supplement their current contracts to supplement their current contracts as the current transaction became popular after the current transaction expired at the end of 2025. The New Deal costs $1.1 billion a year.
“We can’t say enough about ESPN,” TKO COO and President Mark Shapiro told the Goldman Sachs Commune and Technology Conference. “They were extraordinary partners at the UFC. Our growth and the fact that we are mainstream, we are very young and we are very diverse, have a lot to do with the marketing machines that are the end of the story, in the Walt Disney era.
“That being said, we knew they weren’t there for the price we wanted for the UFC. We had time that we could have come across some of the numbers events, across conversations and timelines. We didn’t rule them out, but we knew quite a bit that they couldn’t reach double (price).
ESPN has signed another agreement with WWE under the same ownership group as WWE and began carrying “premium live events” of promotions like WrestleMania and Summerslam, but there was little hope for holding the UFC.
“We pivoted them as soon as we learned that it was going to be (a premium live event) to get a huge increase in WWE,” Shapiro said. “The moment we did that, it really meant that the UFC would be a small package if they were to stay.”
Shapiro says that many suitors interested in getting a UFC broadcast rights deal because ESPN is not running, at the price the company was looking for.
Paramount eventually landed the entire package, which includes the end of the event’s traditional pay-per-view model, but many companies had bid for the UFC.
“We’re talking about our eyesight with everyone else,” Shapiro said. “From Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Amazon is on a big scale, YouTube, Netflix, in a big scale, in a big scale, in a big way. There were lots of players at the table.
“I’m not saying that it’s the numbers we ultimately received and signed. There’s a lot of volume on the fight of 43, and we’re saying that everything shot the entire package because we have a competitor series and the ultimate fighter and library.
Paramount recently changed ownership at SkyDance, led by company CEO David Ellison, and took over broadcast Juggernaut in a $8 billion merger.
Almost immediately after the deal was completed, Paramount signed the UFC to its huge seven-year deal, simultaneously closing its lucrative deal with the creators behind Hit Show South Park. Stranger Things Netflix creators Matt and Ross Duffer.
In addition, Ellison enjoys the support from her father, Larry Ellison. He overturned Elon Musk on Wednesday as the wealthiest man in the world with an estimated nearly $400 billion.
“David Ellison’s vision, the technology that’s at the forefront of everything they do,” Shapiro said. “We know that the big time in the news today is behind Ellison’s visitors. They are visionary. They are really at the forefront of merging technology and content. We have a lot of history with David.
“Everything he touched really fell into his father’s footsteps, against all possibilities, from a business perspective on content narratives. Success creates success.”
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