Paramount Bags Exclusive UFC Rights In Landmark $7.7 Billion Deal
Paramount, just days after completing its merger with production studio Skydance, announced on Monday that it will pay $7.7 billion for exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for seven years. This marks the first significant strategic move by the newly combined company.
'The addition of UFC's year-round must-watch events to our platforms is a major win," said Paramount CEO David Ellison, former CEO of Skydance, describing the mixed martial arts franchise as a 'global sports powerhouse."
Under the agreement with UFC owner TKO Group Holdings, streaming service Paramount+ will carry the complete U.S. slate of 13 numbered UFC events and 30 'Fight Nights" starting next year.
Paramount+ and Paramount's CBS broadcast network will also simulcast select numbered cards, traditionally pay-per-view events featuring top-ranked fighters and championship bouts, at no extra cost to viewers.
Ellison, who led Skydance's production of Hollywood action blockbusters and TV series, pledged to increase Paramount's investment in high-quality exclusive content, which he considers the 'single biggest driver of subscriber growth."
As cord-cutting accelerates, live sports remain one of the few formats that draw mass audiences in real time. Rivals Netflix and Disney preceded Paramount in securing major sports deals.
Netflix signed a $5 billion, 10-year global deal for WWE Raw wrestling and added two Christmas Day NFL football games. Disney's ESPN extended rights with U.S. professional football, hockey, and baseball leagues as well as the College Football Playoff invitational tournament.
TKO Chief Financial Officer Andrew Schleimer revealed that conversations with Paramount had been ongoing since June, with the process significantly accelerating last week after Paramount completed its extended $8.4 billion merger with Skydance.
'Once the merger closed, we were off to the races," said Schleimer.
Paramount will pay an average of $1.1 billion a year to TKO Group and will move away from UFC's traditional pay-per-view model. It may also seek UFC rights in other markets as they become available.
'They are not playing for near-term earnings outperformance; they aim to create a long-term imprint on the future of the media industry to 'win,'" stated LightShed Partners analysts.
UFC stages around 43 live events annually, reaching approximately 100 million U.S. fans and nearly 950 million households globally. The diverse but predominantly young male audience of UFC made the bidding highly competitive, noted UFC Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein.
Epstein said UFC chose Paramount for its financial strength, CBS's broad television reach, and Ellison's focus on technology and long-term vision.
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