Tag: netflix

Report: UFC Seeking $1 Billion Yearly In New TV Deal, 5 Interested Broadcasters Revealed

Whoever is interested in obtaining the US television rights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will be paying more than a pretty penny. Per a new report from Bloomberg, the UFC is looking to obtain a TV rights deal in the United States that will give them more than $1 billion per year. The UFC’s […]

Whoever is interested in obtaining the US television rights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will be paying more than a pretty penny.

Per a new report from Bloomberg, the UFC is looking to obtain a TV rights deal in the United States that will give them more than $1 billion per year.

The UFC’s current deal with ESPN expires at the end of the year. The two parties originally agreed to a five-year deal worth approximately $1 billion total back in 2018 before a contract extension that made the deal worth about $450 million a year.

According to reports, ESPN is interested in re-upping its rights with the leading MMA promotion in the world but will face stiff competition from Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as YouTube and the Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming services. ESPN and TKO, the UFC’s parent company, are currently in the midst of an exclusive negotiating period that lasts until mid-April.

“We started on ESPN seven years ago and had a rocky relationship in the beginning,” UFC CEO Dana White told Bloomberg TV in November. “But now I couldn’t be happier at ESPN, it’s a great relationship and I wouldn’t mind staying with them.”

UFC Seeks More Than $1 Billion In New TV Rights

What makes the UFC’s broadcasting services in the country so valuable is that the UFC is the only major sports broadcasting rights that are available for the foreseeable future. The NBA locked up new television contracts last year, while leagues like the NFL and MLB are already early into new broadcasting contracts.

The UFC’s partner in TKO, the WWE, just started its new broadcasting rights, with its Monday Night Raw program having its Netflix premiere just this past Monday. The partnership, as well as Netflix’s previous ventures into live programming last year with NFL games and the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, giving speculation that the UFC could be interested in partnering with Netflix.

Amazon Prime has recently been the broadcasting home to ONE Championship Fight Night cards in the U.S.

There is also the chance that the UFC may split its broadcasting rights like the other U.S. major sports leagues do. This could see, for example, UFC pay-per-views heading to one platform, while UFC Fight Night cards and other programs such as Dana White’s Contender Series and The Ultimate Fighter, heading elsewhere.

Is UFC Headed to Netflix After Seeing WWE Strike $5 Billion Deal with the Streaming Giant?

Is UFC Headed to Netflix After Seeing WWE Strike $5 Billion Deal with the Streaming Giant?Is the UFC headed to Netflix after its current deal with ESPN expires? On January 6, World Wrestling Entertainment…

Is UFC Headed to Netflix After Seeing WWE Strike $5 Billion Deal with the Streaming Giant?

Is the UFC headed to Netflix after its current deal with ESPN expires?

On January 6, World Wrestling Entertainment will make its long-awaited debut on the streaming giant, taking its flagship show off cable television for the first time since its inception more than 30 years ago. In early 2024, the sports entertainment organization revealed that they had signed a massive $5 billion deal to bring Monday Night RAW to Netflix for the next 10 years.

With the UFC’s deal with ESPN set to run out at the end of 2025, could we see Dana White and Co. follow suit and bring their product to the world’s biggest streaming service?

It’s certainly possible according to MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin. In a recent post on X, the respected combat sports journalist offered some insight from industry insiders who strongly believe that the UFC will join its business brother on Netflix in 2026.

image 23

“A lot of industry folks seem to believe Netflix is the leading candidate to land at least part of the UFC’s broadcast rights after 2025,” Martin wrote. “Next year is gonna be very big for the UFC.”

In 2024, Endeavor—the UFC’s parent company—purchased World Wrestling Entertainment for $9.3 billion before merging the two organizations under one corporate banner, TKO Group Holdings.

1x 1

Netflix’s First Foray into Combat Sports Leaves Fight Fans Frustrated

While Netflix’s first dive into the world of live combat sports rendered big results for the company, it left a lot of fight fans frustrated.

In November, Netflix was the exclusive home to a boxing match between former heavyweight world champion ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson and YouTube star Jake Paul.

gettyimages 2184357168 612x612 1

While Netflix knew the fight would generate big numbers, it’s safe to say that the viewers they drew exceeded all expectations as well as their bandwidth.

According to reports, more than 65 million people live-streamed the generational clash simultaneously. Unfortunately, thousands of households were left scrambling to watch the fight through alternative resources after the streaming site crashed during the co-main event rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

“Whenever we do live events, we want it to go smoothly for every single one of our members,” Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria said during a press event on Wednesday. “That’s really important—also, to put it in perspective, it was 65 million concurrent streams, right? It was a very successful night. A lot of people [watched], the scale was very big, which is great. There’s a lot of interest in it.”

Of course, WWE’s chief content officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque will happily look past a few bugs in the system if it means getting 60 million fans to tune into RAW every week.

“I’ll just say, if it blinks a couple of times and we do 60 million, I’m good with that,” Levesque said with a laugh.

triple h makes appearance monday 894458409

Netflix Hit with $50 Million Class-Action Lawsuit Over Paul vs. Tyson Streaming Struggles

Netflix hit with $50 million class-action lawsuit over Paul vs. Tyson streaming strugglesJake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was a massive success for Netflix, bringing in more than 108 million live viewers…

Netflix hit with $50 million class-action lawsuit over Paul vs. Tyson streaming struggles

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was a massive success for Netflix, bringing in more than 108 million live viewers around the world. Unfortunately, a lot of those viewers weren’t actually able to watch the fight as it unfolded.

According to the website Downdetector, 500,000 complaints were lodged from people having streaming issues on Netflix long before Tyson and Paul were scheduled to make their walks for one of the most anticipated boxing matches of the last decade.

Adding insult to injury was Netflix’s social media channels which completely ignored the issues half a million people were experiencing.

Netflix

Understandably frustrated, a Florida man named Ronald ‘Blue’ Denton filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Hillsborough County on Monday. TMZ was the first to report the lawsuit.

“60 million Americans were hyped to see ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ versus Youtuber-turner-prizefighter Jake Paul. What they saw was ‘The Baddest Streaming on Planet,’” reads the lawsuit.

The class-action suit is seeking more than $50 million, saying Netflix failed to deliver on the services it promised.

“Netflix customers experienced massive streaming issues and should have known better because it’s happened before. They were woefully ill-prepared,” the suit states (h/t FOX 5).

tyson paul

Netflix isn’t the only one catching heat following Paul vs. tyson

Of course, those who were able to watch the fight were left infuriated for a completely different reason.

Paul vs. Tyson failed to deliver the fireworks that both fighters had promised in the weeks leading up to their scrap. Instead of giving everyone a highlight-reel knockout, or even a spirited back-and-forth contest, the fight just sort of plodded along for eight rounds.

Netflix

“They had no intentions to really scrap at all,” three-time Super Bowl champion Michael Irvin said on the It Is What It Is podcast. “If you look through that, I didn’t see one patented uppercut by Mike Tyson. What if Mike Tyson hit him with an uppercut? Then I heard some people talking about they put that in the contract. He couldn’t body and then uppercut. Like, how can you put that in a fight contract?

“You got all these people out here, and he couldn’t body him and do that patented uppercut. All of that is Mike Tyson is not Mike Tyson anyway, and now you taking away Mike Tyson’s best gift, which was that uppercut. Man, that’s a big lie to me. That’s like making me play a game without running a slant route in the deep end or the deep out. You do what you do best. If they take that away you not that dude anymore, and they took that away.”

Perhaps fight fans were better served by not being able to watch Paul vs. Tyson. Sadly, many of those same viewers also missed the epic rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in the evening’s co-main event.

Netflix

Netflix Scores Big Numbers With 120M Viewers for Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson and Crashed the Site

Netflix Scores Big Numbers With 120M Viewers for Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson and Crashed the SiteJake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was a massive hit for Netflix. Unfortunately, a lot of fight fans weren’t able…

Netflix Scores Big Numbers With 120M Viewers for Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson and Crashed the Site

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was a massive hit for Netflix. Unfortunately, a lot of fight fans weren’t able to watch the event.

Friday’s event at the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium was a smashing success by all accounts. The event drew more than 70,000 spectators and generated more than 120 million viewers on the popular streaming site.

Netflix

Sadly, a lot of people were left following along with the fight on social media after Netflix crashed more than an hour before the big fight went down.

“This is the biggest event,” Paul said on the success of the bout. “Over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site.”

According to DownDetector, roughly 90,000 viewers reported outages in the hour leading up to Paul vs. Tyson.

Netflix

Netflix streaming struggles doesn’t bode well for his impending partnership with the NFL and WWE

Users on X, Facebook, and pretty much every other major social media platform shared images of their frozen connections, many of which were stuck on a 25% loading screen. The evening was also marred with technical issues during the live broadcast, the most egregious being an incident where Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ microphone didn’t work while he was speaking with analysts.

A similar situation occurred when legendary pugilist Evander Holyfield joined the panel but couldn’t hear anything that was being said. Roy Jones Jr. had to repeatedly lean over and well questions into Holyfield’s ear.

Netflix has not yet commented on the issue, but the streaming fail doesn’t bode well for the Christmas day when the streaming giant is scheduled to host two live NFL games. Netflix will also be the new home of WWE Raw beginning January 6.

Netflix

Hopefully, Netflix can work out the kinks before then.

Netflix Scores Big Numbers With 120M Viewers for Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson and Crashed the Site

Netflix Scores Big Numbers With 120M Viewers for Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson and Crashed the SiteJake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was a massive hit for Netflix. Unfortunately, a lot of fight fans weren’t able…

Netflix Scores Big Numbers With 120M Viewers for Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson and Crashed the Site

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was a massive hit for Netflix. Unfortunately, a lot of fight fans weren’t able to watch the event.

Friday’s event at the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium was a smashing success by all accounts. The event drew more than 70,000 spectators and generated more than 120 million viewers on the popular streaming site.

Netflix

Sadly, a lot of people were left following along with the fight on social media after Netflix crashed more than an hour before the big fight went down.

“This is the biggest event,” Paul said on the success of the bout. “Over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site.”

According to DownDetector, roughly 90,000 viewers reported outages in the hour leading up to Paul vs. Tyson.

Netflix

Netflix streaming struggles doesn’t bode well for his impending partnership with the NFL and WWE

Users on X, Facebook, and pretty much every other major social media platform shared images of their frozen connections, many of which were stuck on a 25% loading screen. The evening was also marred with technical issues during the live broadcast, the most egregious being an incident where Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ microphone didn’t work while he was speaking with analysts.

A similar situation occurred when legendary pugilist Evander Holyfield joined the panel but couldn’t hear anything that was being said. Roy Jones Jr. had to repeatedly lean over and well questions into Holyfield’s ear.

Netflix has not yet commented on the issue, but the streaming fail doesn’t bode well for the Christmas day when the streaming giant is scheduled to host two live NFL games. Netflix will also be the new home of WWE Raw beginning January 6.

Netflix

Hopefully, Netflix can work out the kinks before then.

Jake Paul expects ‘hundreds of millions’ to tune into his fight with ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson on July 20

MixCollage 25 May 2024 09 53 AM 7092Jake Paul expects his fight with ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson to be the most watched in combat sports history. In…

MixCollage 25 May 2024 09 53 AM 7092

Jake Paul expects his fight with ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson to be the most watched in combat sports history. In fact, ‘The Problem Child’ anticipates that “hundreds of millions” will tune in.

Paul’s scrap with the former unified heavyweight world champion has received its fair share of criticism, most of it surrounding the 30+ year age gap between the YouTuber and his iconic opposition. Still, the event is expected the emanate from a sold-out AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas with one of the most stacked lineups of the year.

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson card

Speaking with TMZ Sports, Paul was asked bout the potential viewership numbers for his showdown with ‘Kid Dynamite.’

“The global viewership could be in the hundreds of millions like you said,” said Paul. “It’s wild. It doesn’t make any sense, but the fact that Netflix is a part of this is the perfect piece of the puzzle. It makes this trifecta of Netflix’s audience, my audience, and Mike Tyson’s audience” (h/t MMA Mania).

In a first for the streaming giant, Netflix will broadcast the Paul vs. Tyson card live at no additional charge to its existing 260 million subscribers around the world, making Paul’s prediction a real possibility.

Two massive matchups join jake paul vs. mike tyson card

In addition to the massive main event, fight fans will also see one of the most anticipated rematches in boxing history as Katie Taylor runs back her instant classic with Amanda Serrano. Taylor came out on top in their April 2022 meeting at Madison Square Garden, scoring a split decision victory after 10 entertaining rounds of action.

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson card

The first time around, Taylor successfully defended her undisputed lightweight world championship. This time, she’ll put her undisputed super lightweight title on the line eight months after claiming the crown from Chantelle Cameron.

Also on the docket is Darren Till’s professional boxing debut. After spending seven years under the UFC banner, ‘The Gorilla’ has busted out of his cage and is ready to test his skills in the sweet science against legendary pugilist Julio César Chávez Jr.

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson card