Paramount Buys UFC Rights For $7.7 Billion To Boost Streaming

Paramount has acquired the exclusive rights to show all events from the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the US over the next seven years, the companies announced Monday, a $7.7 billion deal designed to boost the Paramount+ streaming service.

Paramount will offer the UFC’s 13 marquee events and 30 additional fight nights on its streaming service, while also showing select events on the CBS broadcast network, starting next year. UFC’s marquee events are typically numbered and feature title matches with top fighters, while fight nights usually involve up-and-comers or less prominent matchups.

Paramount said it’s paying an average of $1.1 billion a year and will explore buying international rights in the future as they become available.

David Ellison has wasted no time putting his stamp on Paramount since closing his deal to acquire control of the company last week. He’s paying UFC’s owner TKO Group Holdings Inc. more than double what it received under its previous deal with Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, hoping the mixed martial arts league will drive millions of viewers to the company’s streaming service. Paramount+ had 77.7 million subscribers at the end of June, smaller than some rivals.

Paramount will offer all the matches at no additional cost to consumers, a departure somewhat from how the UFC worked in the past. The league historically sold its marquee events on a pay-per-view basis. But putting those events behind a “double paywall” — customers needed a subscription to ESPN+ and then had to pay a fee on top — limited the audience and fueled piracy.

UFC gives Paramount+ a year-round sport to engage viewers and prevent them from canceling. The streaming service already carries the National Football League, some college football, golf, soccer and college basketball. But its selection of sports is lighter between the months of April and August.

“The UFC is a unicorn sports asset,” Ellison said in an interview. “It’ll be the largest sport exclusive to any one individual platform.”

TKO Chief Executive Officer Ari Emanuel and President Mark Shapiro have been shopping the UFC rights all year. ESPN has held the rights since 2019 and had an exclusive negotiating window of 90 days to retain them. ESPN allowed that window to lapse, at which point Netflix Inc. had a brief window to strike a deal thanks to its existing relationship with TKO’s World Wrestling Entertainment. When that lapsed, Paramount, Amazon.com Inc., YouTube, Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. and Fox Corp. all inquired.

Many of the prospective bidders were interested in acquiring just the numbered events. Shapiro wanted to find one home for them all. “The idea for our brand to put all of our fights on one platform where if you just sign up for the service, you get it. That’s monster,” he said.

The popularity of the UFC has exploded over the last decade as younger fans gravitated toward mixed martial arts instead of boxing. While the UFC has struggled in the last couple of years to mint new stars, that didn’t prevent TKO from securing a major increase in its fees. 

Endeavor acquired a majority stake in UFC in 2016 and later bought the rest of the company. After acquiring World Wrestling Entertainment in 2023, it created a new combat sports company under the TKO banner. ESPN last week announced a deal to pick up some rights to TKO’s World Wrestling Entertainment.