The UFC is preparing for a new media rights deal as its blockbuster contract with ESPN, signed in 2018, nears its end.
This agreement followed FOX’s $200 million bid to retain broadcasting rights to the leading mixed martial arts promotion. With the deal set to expire, other networks and streaming platforms will soon have the opportunity to bid for UFC rights, and Netflix is expected to be among the contenders.
Netflix, which recently signed a lucrative deal with WWE for Monday Night Raw and WWE Network rights in several international markets, has remained tight-lipped about its potential interest in the UFC. Speaking on a quarterly financial call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos declined to comment directly on UFC negotiations but offered insights into the success of their WWE deal.
“Not going to comment anything specifically like the UFC, but WWE is off to a great start,” Sarandos said (h/t MMA Fighting). “The first week we drew about five million views, which is about two times the audience that Monday Night Raw was getting on linear television. Pretty consistent with how we modeled it, how we’d hope to build the audience for the league. We also saw that non-live viewings and the day after the live event grew by 25 percent, mostly outside of the U.S. time zones.”
Sarandos highlighted international markets where the WWE deal has gained traction.
“This is new viewing in the U.K. and Canada, Mexico, Australia, Brazil in particular, which are really big markets,” he said. “In the U.S., our viewing of Monday Night Raw was as big as it has been in five years. So we’re super thrilled with how that’s going and how that’s coming out.”
The WWE deal, worth $5 billion over 10 years, is an indicator of Netflix’s willingness to invest in sports entertainment. With UFC now operating under the TKO Group Holdings banner — following its financial merger with WWE — negotiations for the UFC’s media rights are expected to be led by TKO President Mark Shapiro and CEO Ari Emanuel.
ESPN retains an exclusive negotiating window for the UFC media rights, which will expire on April 15, 2025. After that, the bidding war for one of the premier properties in combat sports is expected to intensify.
