UFC has a new TV deal opportunity coming.
UFC TV Deals
UFC is currently in a TV rights deal with ESPN, and that deal runs throughout the rest of 2025 and will finish up at the end of the year. But, UFC is able to start negotiating a new TV deal this Tuesday.
Following the UFC 314 event, Dana White joined the press conference and was asked about what he’s looking for in a new deal.
That’s a great question. I mean when the window opens we’ll obviously start, you know, talking to lots of different people and we’ll see what the options are out there. we’ve said this every time, there could be a time when we end up on several different networks, like sports, like all other sports do. I like ESPN and I’ve said it many times, we had a bit of a rocky start, which is normal in any relationship. But, we’re in a great place with ESPN, whether we re-sign with them or do not, I have nothing but great things to say about my time at ESPN.
He was then asked if he would stick to the same 43 events a year schedule that they’re currently on.
I don’t know. I don’t know, it depends on ESPN or wherever else we go, is looking for. Most of the time with these deals, you’re catering to what the network needs. Plus, they’ll have other programming, other sports that they need to, you know, that they’re already committed to at certain times and seasons and whatever it may be, so, it always changes. It doesn’t matter to me. It doesn’t matter to me.
Dana was then asked by another reporter if he would foresee the pay-per-view model sticking around, or if he would be opened to one of the platforms just hosting every event.
Yeah, it’s like what I said to him, we do what works for the network, what do they want to do, do they want to just put it on their air? Do they want to do pay-per-view? I don’t know. Do they want to put it behind a paywall? I don’t know any of those answers. Tuesday, the window opens and we start talking to other networks. And we’ll get more into that.
The Pay-Per-View model has been slowly fading out with events and sports in recent years. WWE has began holding events on Peacock and Netflix and we’ve seen boxing events on DAZN, Netflix and Amazon Prime. UFC doing away with the pay-per-view model is highly favorable to fans.
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