Less than 24 hours ago, the entire MMA sphere was flipped on its head by the announcement of UFC’s latest broadcast partner, Paramount+/CBS. The promotion secured a wildly lucrative deal with Paramount, and in the process announced the UFC will be moving away from the pay-per-view (PPV) model. Instead, all events will air on Paramount+, and the larger numbered cards — our current PPV events — would simulcast on CBS.
Unfortunately, I’m not certain Shapiro and UFC CEO Dana White have ever had a conversation together on the topic, because they seem to have extremely different opinions. In an interview with New York Post Sports just hours after Shapiro’s quotes, White contradicted Shapiro by leaving the door open to a PPV return for larger fights or one-off events.
”What I love about this business is,” White explained (via SportsKeeda). “I can lay out what we think the fights are going to be for a year, and a fight will pop up that I never saw coming. A star will pop up out of somewhere. Anything is possible. And you could do a one-off pay-per-view. I am going to be on pay-per-view this Saturday. Pay-Per-View is not dead.”
In a different interview, White also expressed plans for “four big events” in 2026. Could that end up equating to four PPV events? Will just the UFC White House card end up costing extra? At this time, it’s impossible to say, but it feels like a bad sign for our collective wallets that White is already backtracking on a key point about the new deal.
I’m suddenly feeling a whole lot less confident about that “$12.99 per month to be a UFC fan” messaging.