UFC CEO Dana White, who once said “F—k ESPN” for its “dirty” programming, claims things “are in a really good place right now” — but also reveals some turbulence along the way.
UFC and ESPN will open an exclusive, three-month negotiating window in Jan. 2025.
Whether or not The Walt Disney Company can lock up another longterm streaming contract with the world’s most valuable combat sports promotion — operating under the TKO Group Holdings banner — all depends on what kind of coin ESPN is willing to cough up.
The more likely scenario is UFC hits the open market in April and looks for the highest bidder, which could include popular streaming services like Amazon and Netflix — the latter of which will serve as the new home for WWE programming in early 2025.
“Yeah, everyone is kicking the tires,” White told Sports Business Journal. “And over the however many last years that we’ve been together, I’ve had some headbutting with ESPN, but I feel like we are in a really good place right now and I’m really happy with my relationship with them and the way that this whole thing is running. We’ll see how it plays out. I think everyone is kicking the tires and is interested in making a bid.”
UFC previously aired on Spike TV and FOX before landing on ESPN.
“We see the demand for live sports is outstripping the supply of premium sports content,” TKO Group Holdings President Mark Shapiro said during a recent financial update. “It’s not really a volume product. It’s a premium volume product. Sort of like the NFL used to be before Thursday Night Football. It was driven by scarcity. I think UFC benefits the same way. We’re also both at once a subscriber acquisition tool and a churn antidote. We’re attractive to both digital and linear and we’re year-round. We’re optimistic at the potential package we will end up with.”
If UFC was worth $7 billion in 2018, how much could it command in 2025? We’ll find out in just a few months.