{"id":711715,"date":"2026-06-03T03:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711715\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T03:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:16:11","slug":"pfl-in-talks-with-netflix-fox-as-espn-deal-nears-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711715\/","title":{"rendered":"PFL In Talks With Netflix, Fox As ESPN Deal Nears End"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Professional Fighters League (PFL) is looking for a new home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For the past six months, PFL has been putting on excellent events \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/professional-fighters-league-pfl\/437130\/pfl-belfast-results-recap-and-highlights-kelly-vs-wilson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">great fights<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/professional-fighters-league-pfl\/437147\/pfl-belfast-highlights-dean-garnett-crushes-ciaran-clarke-with-spinning-elbow\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">brutal knockouts<\/a>, fun matchups, and no more tournaments \u2014 but no one is watching them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">That\u2019s because its current television partner, ESPN, has made the product almost impossible to find. There has been little promotion, events have been hard to locate, and much of the content has been tucked behind a new, expensive app that fans have struggled to navigate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">And because of that, PFL is now looking for a new distributor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">PFL has aired on ESPN since 2019; however, its current media rights deal expires at the end of the year. With the exclusive negotiating window now closed and no agreement reached, the fight promotion is free and clear to negotiate with other media companies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">PFL CEO John Martin revealed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/06\/02\/with-mmas-popularity-surging-pfl-searching-for-next-media-partner-as-espn-deal-fizzles\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sports Business Journal<\/a> that the company is speaking with Netflix, Fox and others \u2014 while also noting to never say never when it comes to ESPN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">However, the writing appears to be on the wall. It seems \u201chighly unlikely\u201d PFL will continue with \u201cThe Worldwide Leader in Sports,\u201d especially because Martin does not believe ESPN has done enough to help grow the promotion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI tend to be very direct, but I think what I\u2019m saying is factually correct: They\u2019re not doing anything to help promote and make it easy for our viewers and fans to find us,\u201d Martin told SBJ. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you the number of incoming complaints that people write in \u2014 they say, \u2018I was actively looking to find your event, and I couldn\u2019t find it, I didn\u2019t know when it was on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI was hoping the PFL was going to become more important to ESPN, and we haven\u2019t seen that in terms of better scheduling, better network access, and then of course the marketing and promotion, but the tune-in and on-air promotion \u2014 and we\u2019ve seen none of that, so that speaks volumes to what their commitment might be to mixed martial arts,\u201d Martin continued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">PFL is putting on genuinely great fights. In all honesty, the product might be the best it has ever been since the promotion\u2019s inception.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But I bet you\u2019re not watching, are you?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">That is the problem PFL has to solve with its next media rights deal. The fights are there. The talent is there. The action is there. Now, the promotion needs a platform that actually wants to push it, promote it and make it easy for fans to find.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">And with Martin \u2014 the former CEO of Turner Broadcasting \u2014 now at the helm, PFL at least has someone with the media connections to land the promotion somewhere much better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For all the latest PFL news and notes click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/professional-fighters-league-pfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professional Fighters League (PFL) is looking for a new home. For the past six months, PFL has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,8081,85,14855],"class_list":["post-711715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-professional-fighters-league-pfl","tag-sports","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711715","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=711715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}