\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUFC and Paramount+ Reach New Streaming Deal<\/p>\n
News broke today that the\u00a0UFC<\/a>\u00a0has inked a massive seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal with\u00a0Paramount<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Skydance Sports<\/a>. Starting in 2026, all UFC content\u2014including 13 numbered events and 30 Fight Nights per year\u2014will stream exclusively on\u00a0Paramount+<\/a>, with select marquee fights simulcast on\u00a0CBS<\/a>. This marks a huge shift in how fight fans will watch events.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Paramount has been in the fight game \u2014 back in its\u00a0Spike TV<\/a>\u00a0days, the network helped bring MMA into the mainstream by airing\u00a0The Ultimate Fighter\u00a0and early UFC programming. That era played a massive role in the sport\u2019s explosion, and now, almost two decades later, Paramount is back in the Octagon. Paramount also owned and aired Bellator MMA for years, helping build one of the sport\u2019s top promotions before selling it in 2023.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat UFC and Paramount+ Mean for Fans The new model is a clear win for fans\u2019 wallets. For\u00a0$12.99 a month, subscribers will get access to all UFC events \u2014 a big departure from the\u00a0ESPN+<\/a>\u00a0model that charged $79.99 per pay-per-view plus a monthly subscription fee.<\/p>\n Fighter Pay Changes<\/p>\n One interesting wrinkle: fighters will no longer be receiving pay-per-view points under this setup. While that could mean a shake-up in athlete compensation, there\u2019s hope that\u00a0TKO Group Holdings<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the parent company of UFC and WWE \u2014 will find new ways to ensure fighters benefit from this expanded reach.<\/p>\n Simplifying Streaming<\/p>\n From a sports fan\u2019s perspective, the biggest relief might be cutting down on the number of streaming services you need just to watch your favorite events. Ironically, we moved to streaming to escape the high costs of cable, but with so many platforms now, it\u2019s often just as expensive \u2014 or more. This deal simplifies that, at least for MMA.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Death of PPV?<\/p>\n In my view, 2025 will mark the official death of the PPV model for major sports, with boxing likely to follow suit. We\u2019ve already seen hints of it, like\u00a0Netflix<\/a>\u00a0hosting the\u00a0Paul vs. Tyson\u00a0fight. It\u2019s exciting, fresh, and a bold move from TKO. For fans, it means more access. For the sport, it could mean a bigger audience. And if you\u2019re into the stock market\u2026 well, now might be the time to keep an eye on\u00a0TKO shares<\/a>.<\/p>\n Final Thoughts<\/p>\n The speculation is over \u2014 the UFC\u2019s streaming future is set. Let\u2019s hope both the fans and the fighters come out on top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC and Paramount+ Reach New Streaming Deal News broke today that the\u00a0UFC\u00a0has inked a massive seven-year, $7.7 billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-62091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nA Big Win for Fans\u2019 Wallets<\/p>\n