While UFC 314 was a banger of a card and another big financial success for the UFC, it’s peanuts compared to the next broadcast deal(s) the promotion is looking to sign when their current arrangement with ESPN ends at the end of 2025.
One important landmark coming up is the end of the exclusive negotiating period between UFC and ESPN. That ends Tuesday, April 15th and parent company TKO is expected to open official talks with all bidders, including giants like Netflix, Amazon, and who knows who else.
“When the window opens, we’ll obviously start talking to lots of different people, and we’ll see we’ll see what the options are out there,” UFC CEO Dana White said at the UFC 314 post-fight press conference. “We’ve said this every time: there could be a time when we end up on several different networks like other sports.”
There’s been some recent rumors that the relationship between the UFC and ESPN had become strained over the past few months, but White implied that wasn’t the case.
“I like ESPN,” he declared. “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 or do not, I have nothing but great things to say about my time at ESPN.”
Currently, the odds on favorite to take the bulk of UFC’s programming is Netflix, who recently signed a multi-billion dollar deal with UFC sister company WWE. While they were happy to broadcast the wrestling promotion’s two big shows every week, their overarching live event philosophy is geared towards major events and not the weekly warehouse shows the UFC has pumped out for ESPN.
White left the door open for change when asked if UFC would be looking to keep producing 43 events a year.
“I don’t know, it it depends on what ESPN or wherever else we go is looking for,” he said. “Most of the times when you do these deals, you’re catering to what the network needs. Plus, they’ll have other programming, other sports that they’re already committed to with certain times and seasons and whatever it may be. So it always changes. It doesn’t matter to me.”
White suggested that could even mean the end of pay-per-view as we know it.
“Usually we do what works for the network,” White said. “What do they wanna do? Do they wanna just put it on their air? Do they wanna do pay-per-view? I don’t know. Do they wanna put it behind a paywall? I don’t know anything else. Tuesday, the window opens and we start talking to other networks. And we’ll get more into that.”
While the ESPN deal doesn’t run out until the end of the year, we wouldn’t be surprised if a new broadcast deal gets hammered out sooner rather than later. When UFC went from FOX to ESPN, that deal was announced in late May, seven months before the existing deal expired. Who knows how quickly deals will start dropping after the Tuesday exclusive negotiation window closes, especially if there’ll be more than one coming.
