
UFC £5.7bn broadcast deal may be 'terrible' for fighters
Most UFC fighters have either a flat fee per event or a show and seperate win fee, while there is also a cut of the UFC's sponsorship deal with their clothing partner Venum.UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall said on the Ariel Helwani Show, external he was not sure how the new model would affect fighters.Manchester fighter Aspinall will headline a PPV event, UFC 321, in October.The new broadcast deal will kick in at the start of 2026 and after initial reports stated the PPV model would end completely, White said there was still the possibility of a few standalone PPV events each year.This deal only applies to the US, with TNT Sports the UFC's broadcast partner in the UK.The UFC has used PPVs as a revenue generator since its first event in 1993.But reports indicated PPV sales have been decreasing in recent years. The UFC staged 14 PPV events in 2024 in the US that were about £60 each.White says the fighters will benefit from the increased exposure in the new broadcast deal, but has made no mention of any financial benefits.

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Time Out
an hour ago
- Time Out
Thousands of anime titles will soon be streamable on Delta flights
Air travel is a pain, but at least anime fans will soon have extra enticement to get on a plane. Starting later this year, the streaming service Crunchyroll will partner with Delta to provide the airline with access to its vast library of Japanese animation titles. As first reported by The Wrap, the streamer is curating a collection of 50,000 movies and TV episodes, totalling approximately 25,000 hours of content, available on 169,000 seatback screens. No specific titles have been confirmed. 'There is nothing better on a long flight than immersing yourself in the rich storytelling and world-building of anime', Rahul Purini, president of Crunchyroll, said in a statement. 'Fans can go deep on one series or sample one episode of many series – from action to adventure, romance and more'. Initially started by a group of University of California, Berkeley graduates in 2006, Crunchyroll began as a pirate site focused on East Asian media content before going legit in 2009. The platform is now jointly owned by the US-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan's Aniplex. In addition to the in-flight entertainment, Delta SkyMiles members will have access to special offers, including free 24-hour trials of the Crunchyroll app.


Metro
3 hours ago
- Metro
South Park's latest savage Trump takedown scores 6,200,000 viewers in days
South Park season 27 returned for a second episode that again did not pull punches when covering the Donald Trump administration – and saw millions tune in. The target of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's satire the second time around was largely Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 53, as well as Vice President JD Vance, 41. The episode, Got A Nut, featured Noem shooting dogs dead, when she's not imprisoning immigrants through the government's ICE programme. It's now been confirmed that the episode out-performed the season opener in its first three days, averaging 6.2million global viewers across Paramount+ and Comedy Central. The episode scored the highest South Park linear ratings since 2018, according to Variety. It comes after the season's premiere episode caused an almighty stir over its depiction of President Donald Trump as a litigious sex pest who was in a relationship with Satan – this storyline also continued into the second episode – displaying cartoon depictions of his nude body several times. Noem has now been given similarly scathing treatment on the show, as a bulletproof vest-clad animated version of her in seen pursuing Dora the Explorer, while the episode also riffs on the former South Dakota governor's 2024 admission that she once killed her own dog. In her book (deep breath) No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, Noem detailed killing her wirehaired pointer Cricket one day during hunting season and used the account to show her willingness to do things that are 'difficult, messy and ugly' in politics. South Park's animated Noem says in the episode: 'A few years ago I had to put my puppy down by shooting it in the face, because sometimes doing what's important means doing what's hard.' Noem is also portrayed as heavily Botoxed, with her facial features often inadvertently drooping downwards. In one scene from the long-running no-holds-barred comedy, her face starts to crawl around the floors of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. (Yes, really.) When Metro contacted the US Homeland Security for comment regarding the episode, assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told us in a statement: 'We want to thank South Park for drawing attention to ICE law enforcement recruitment.' Noem is the eighth person to hold her position at Homeland Security and was previously South Dakota's first ever female governor. On the Homeland Security website she is described as: 'A South Dakota native, Secretary Noem is a rancher, farmer, small business owner, and proud mother and grandmother.' Dubbed 'ICE Barbie', she has defended US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and has carried out Trump's hardline immigration agenda. The 53-year-old was a strong contender to be named as Trump's running mate in last year's US election, before Vance took the spot. This was around the time that Noem was sued by a consumer advocacy group for promoting a cosmetic dental company who she said had fixed her teeth, without disclosing she had a financial relationship with the company. McLaughlin's statement then urged 'patriotic' watchers of the show to join ICE and help deport people from the country, listing a number of benefits. Also featured is Vice President JD Vance as a small manbaby with a memified inflated face, towed along in cut-out Trump's wake as the President insults and belittles him. At one point, Trump kicks small-sized Vance off screen, as if he were a football. The new episode aired after the official Homeland Security X account posted a screenshot from the South Park teaser, using it as a recruitment advertisement with a link to join the law enforcement agency. The official South Park X account responded to the post, asking: 'Wait, so we ARE relevant?' Their reply referenced the White House's response to the first episode of this season, in which they claimed the show was 'fourth-rate' and no longer had any cultural capital. South Park fans would beg to differ, as many took to social media to hail the second episode as an instant classic. @mmpadellan posted a series of fire emojis, declaring: 'These guys are NOT holding back.' More Trending @harpforcongress added: 'I have been watching South Park since 1997. I have never seen them bury someone the way they buried Kristi Noem tonight. Trey and Matt are laser focused on the entire GOP. Buckle Up!' 'South Park truly never misses! Thank you Matt Stone & Trey Parker!!!' wrote @TheAliaLink. A version of this article was originally published on August 8. View More » South Park season 27 episode 2 is available on Paramount+ in the UK. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Trump's honours list includes a British 70s sitcom actor you may have forgotten MORE: The five banned South Park that are too offensive for streaming MORE: Five things we learned from Trump's meeting with Zelensky ahead of Putin summit


The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Drake lawyers allege Universal head Lucian Grainge ‘personally involved' in Kendrick Lamar diss track
As Drake's lawsuit continues against his record label's parent company, Universal Music Group (UMG), his lawyers have claimed that UMG's British chair and chief executive Lucian Grainge had a 'role in and knowledge of the scheme to defame and harass' Drake, and have requested that UMG produce texts and emails by Grainge. UMG has previously denied access to those communications, stating that Grainge has 'no meaningful involvement in the matters and decisions at issue in this litigation'. Drake is suing UMG over its release of Kendrick Lamar's diss track Not Like Us, which contains the line 'Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young … Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles'. The track was hugely popular, reaching No 1 in the US and UK, and was performed at the 2025 Super Bowl half-time show. Its artwork features an image of Drake's home dotted with icons used to identify the homes of registered sex offenders. Drake has strenuously denied the allegation that he is a paedophile. In his lawsuit filed in January, UMG is alleged to have 'approved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track', that was 'intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal paedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response'. Drake is not suing Lamar himself. UMG said the suit was 'utterly without merit' but in April, Drake's lawyers added an amendment to the suit, arguing that the Super Bowl performance 'further solidified the public's belief in the truth of the allegations against Drake'. UMG said Drake was 'being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another'. On Tuesday, Drake's lawyers filed two new motions in the case, calling on the judge in the case to compel UMG to 'collect, review, and produce' relevant documents from Grainge, arguing: 'UMG's refusal to permit relevant discovery into its CEO's files is unsupported by law and would prejudice plaintiff's ability to test and prove his claims.' The motion argues that Drake 'now also has reason to believe that Grainge was personally involved in decisions made regarding the marketing and promotion of [Not Like Us] around its release … Given that plaintiff has alleged Grainge to be one of the individuals at UMG who acted with actual malice, plaintiff is entitled to seek discovery into Grainge's files for the purpose of proving Grainge's actual malice'. A letter from UMG's legal team to Drake's in July, denying access to Grainge's documents, reads: 'UMG has maintained since our first meet and confer on this topic that Sir Lucian had no meaningful involvement in the matters and decisions at issue in this litigation. Sir Lucian runs a global multinational company; he is not involved in record releases or marketing activities around individual tracks, even high-profile ones.' It adds that 'to the extent his documents and communications contain any (limited) relevant information, it is expected to be cumulative and duplicative' of other UMG staff communications that the company has agreed to make available. Lawyers for Drake claim UMG's position has slightly changed from a previous claim of 'no role in the matters', to 'no meaningful involvement'. The second motion from Drake's team seeks a different set of documents, 'related to UMG's historical censorship' of artists, arguing that UMG has the right to censor works when they contain defamatory statements, and has previously exercised that right. It also argues that UMG encouraged competition between two of its labels: Republic, which releases Drake's music, and Interscope, which releases Lamar's. The specific allegation is 'that the incentive structure for executives at UMG's labels motivated UMG to defame Drake'. The motion requests various financial documents, as well as Lamar's unredacted record contract. UMG has not commented on the newly filed motions. The Guardian has contacted the company's legal team for comment. UMG is seeking to have the case dismissed, claiming in March that Drake 'lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated … diss tracks are a popular and celebrated artform centred around outrageous insults, and they would be severely chilled if Drake's suit were permitted to proceed'.