The UFC is the biggest sports property negotiating a broadcast rights deal in 2025, and the company is already setting the bar high.
According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, the mixed martial arts promoter is aiming to more than double its current media rights revenue. The goal is to surpass $1 billion annually after the company’s current deal expires at the end of the year.
To meet that goal, the UFC will likely need to split its rights to multiple buyers.
ESPN and the UFC signed a reported five-year, $1.5 billion deal in 2019. Shaw revealed that the two companies actually crafted two separate deals — one for cable broadcasts and another for PPVs on ESPN+ — that bring in $450 million a year.
In the current deal, ESPN owns the rights to distribute all UFC events, which are produced in-house by the UFC. To watch top UFC events, users must pay $12 per month for ESPN+, then an additional $80 per card to access the pay-per-view event.
According to Shaw at Bloomberg, UFC parent company TKO Holdings believes it has four or five interested bidders already. That list reportedly includes Amazon, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and YouTube.
In a statement provided to Bloomberg, the UFC confirmed it is negotiating with ESPN now as part of an exclusive window through April.
Netflix was considered an early favorite to get the UFC’s second package. The streamer recently launched its partnership with WWE, also owned by TKO Holdings, to be the exclusive home of Monday Night Raw through 2035.
But with so few sports events available in 2025 and multiple bidders hungry for live content, the UFC will have no shortage of interested parties to drive up the bidding and land a larger deal.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.