UFC signs $7.7 billion U.S. TV rights deal with Paramount, ends PPVs
UFC is leaving ESPN in 2026 in the form of a $7.7 billion U.S. rights agreement with Paramount+/CBS, which will be an end to linear.
(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include new information.)
With the UFC-ESPN contract set to expire later this year, TKO Group had spent several months working on a new broadcast deal for the promotion, but at no point did Dana White believe Paramount would be the new home of the world’s leading MMA promotion.
“No, I didn’t think this is where we’d end up,” White said Monday on “The Pat McAfee Show” after Paramount and the UFC announced the news, “but this is sort of how it played out.”
TKO Group, which owns the UFC and WWE under one umbrella, closed a seven-year, $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount on Monday. Starting in 2026, the UFC’s annual 43 events – previously broken down into 13 pay-per-views, plus 30 additional Fight Night events – will stream on Paramount+, with additional events broadcast live on CBS, Paramount’s flagship network.
The biggest change for fans is that Paramount and the UFC are leaving pay-per-view altogether, making every event available to anyone with a Paramount+ subscription, which ranges from $7.99 a month to $12.99 a month in the U.S. for plans without ads and that include Showtime.
“If you look at the moves (Paramount is) making right now and the content that they have,” White told CBS Sports, “they just locked up ‘South Park.’ They have ‘Yellowstone,’ ‘Mob Land,’ which is a big hit, ‘Tulsa King,’ and the list goes on and on. So not only if you’re a UFC fan do you get away from the pay-per-view model, now you just pay 12 or 13 dollars a month, whatever it is, and you get all this programming plus all the UFC content.”
In a subsequent interview with the New York Post, White left the door open to still do “one-off pay-per-views.”
What does ditching pay-per-view mean for UFC fans?
While ditching the pay-per-view model initially feels like a big financial win for fight fans, the decision does raise concerns about the UFC’s incentive to make high-quality cards for those 13 events. White shed light on the situation about what to expect in terms of “big” events, which have decreased in recent years as the UFC roster has swelled during the promotion’s shift to a quantity-based business model.
“It’s looking like we’re gonna do four big events a year (on CBS),” White said. “We’re talking about doing a fight at the White House next year on the 4th of July, the 250th anniversary of America. So imagine a massive fight on the lawn of the White House on CBS.”
White continued, “We basically go every Saturday. So when you’re asking about seasons and off time, there is no off time for the UFC. We go every Saturday. I’m always looking to put on the biggest and best events and, you know, for the card from the bottom all the way to the top. We’re gonna do some amazing things over the next several years with Paramount and CBS, and I’m always looking to bring in the best talent and put on the greatest fights.”
What happened to Netflix?
It was widely expected that the UFC would land on Netflix, at least in some form, given the world’s largest streaming platform also is home to WWE Raw and premium WWE live events. White even said in July 2024 that the UFC was looking into landing on multiple platforms, similar to major sports leagues such as the NFL and NBA
In the end, though, TKO settled on an exclusive deal with Paramount that White ultimately said he’s happy about – even if he didn’t see it coming.
“This is all the things that I used to dream about,” White said. “(With) streaming, my big thing was I believed that one day we would be on a platform when the entire world could watch the fight at the same time and on the same channel, and we are definitely getting closer to my vision with that.”
