UFC president Dana White introduced Monday that the blended martial arts group has reached a landmark seven-year cope with Paramount, CBS and $7.7 billion value of CBS, radically altering the way in which followers entry the largest battles of the game.
UFC is at present at Paramount Plus
The settlement, which begins in January 2026, marks the tip of UFC’s conventional pay-per-view mannequin in america. Beginning subsequent 12 months, all UFC content material will solely be streamed on Paramount+, profitable SELECT numbered occasions on CBS concurrently, eliminating the extra $80 charge followers who beforehand paid for a large battle.
“This historic cope with Paramount and CBS is unimaginable for UFC followers and our athletes,” White stated. “For the primary time, US followers will be capable of entry all UFC content material with out a pay-per-view mannequin, making it extra inexpensive and accessible to see the largest fights on a bigger platform.”
The deal covers the complete annual slate of 43 reside occasions, together with the UFC’s 13 marquee numbered occasions and 30 combat nights, providing over 350 hours of reside content material. The transaction is a big improve from UFC’s present association with ESPN, paying round $500 million a 12 months and expires on the finish of 2025.
Mark Shapiro, president of TKO Group, calls the pay-per-view mannequin “a factor of the previous,” and says there are few leisure choices that also depend on outdated programs. “Is it on pay-per-view already? Boxing? DirectV film? It is an outdated, outdated mannequin,” Shapiro informed CNBC.
The monetary construction strongly helps the UFC, with Paramount paying a mean of $1.1 billion a 12 months, whereas the contracts are weighted in the direction of the backend for a seven-year time period. This represents greater than twice that ESPN is at present paying for UFC rights.
In Paramount’s case, the acquisition represents the primary main content material deal after the completion of the $8.4 billion merger with SkyDance Media. CEO David Ellison described the UFC as “a unicorn asset that seems as soon as each decade.” The deal positions Paramount+ alongside main sports activities content material, including it to the platform’s current NFL and UEFA Champions League programming.
Paramount+ at present prices $7.99 per 30 days on key promoting plans and $12.99 ad-free premium. Subscribers might obtain entry to all UFC occasions at no extra cost and save greater than $1,000 a 12 months in comparison with buying particular person pay-per-view occasions.
The streaming platform has reached roughly 950 million broadcast and digital households throughout greater than 210 nations and territories in 50 languages. The UFC maintains hundreds of thousands of US followers throughout linear, digital and social platforms.
Trade observers see this transfer as a part of a broad shift from conventional pay-per-view fashions to subscription-based streaming. WWE, which additionally owns TKO Group, not too long ago moved premium reside occasions to Netflix and ESPN, abandoning its pay-per-view construction.
Paramount expressed curiosity in buying worldwide UFC rights because it turns into out there on a rolling foundation, with a couple of third of its world rights now accessible annually. When the corporate seems for renewal, it receives an unique 30-day negotiation interval for nationwide rights.
The announcement marks a serious change within the distribution of fight sports activities and will have an effect on how different fight organizations construction media rights offers. For followers, this alteration removes obstacles to particular person occasion purchases and gives entry to UFC’s full programming schedule by a single month-to-month subscription.
