{"id":63236,"date":"2025-08-12T05:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T05:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/63236\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T05:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T05:42:08","slug":"paramount-shakes-up-mma-world-with-7-7b-ufc-rights-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/63236\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount shakes up MMA world with $7.7B UFC rights takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a landmark shake-up of U.S. sports broadcasting, Paramount Global<\/a> has wrestled away exclusive domestic media rights to the Ultimate Fighting Championship<\/a> (UFC) in a seven-year, $7.7 billion agreement that will redefine how Americans watch mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n

Running from 2026 through the 2032\u201333 season, the deal covers all UFC programming \u2014 including 13 numbered events and 30 Fight Nights annually \u2014 and marks the end of the sport\u2019s decades-long pay-per-view model in the United States. Every bout will stream live on Paramount+<\/a> at no extra cost to subscribers, with select marquee cards simulcast on CBS<\/a>, dramatically expanding UFC\u2019s free-to-air footprint.<\/p>\n

The blockbuster agreement comes on the heels of Skydance\u2019s $8.4 billion merger with Paramount. New Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison framed the deal as a strategic coup and said, \u201cParamount\u2019s advantage lies in the expansive reach of our linear and streaming platforms. Live sports continue to be a cornerstone of our broader strategy \u2014 driving engagement, subscriber growth, and long-term loyalty, and the addition of UFC\u2019s year-round must-watch events to our platforms is a major win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Shapiro, President and COO of UFC parent company TKO, hailed the partnership\u2019s commercial and competitive upside and added, \u201cParamount is a platinum partner with significant reach. Our new agreement unlocks powerful opportunities at TKO for years to come \u2013 meaningful economics for investors; expanded premium inventory for global brand partners; and deeper engagement for UFC\u2019s passionate fanbase. Just as importantly, our athletes will love this new stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal ends ESPN<\/a>\u2019s exclusive U.S. broadcast run with UFC, a partnership that began in 2019 and played a pivotal role in integrating the sport into Disney<\/a>\u2019s ESPN+<\/a> streaming ecosystem. UFC will now sit alongside Paramount\u2019s premium sports lineup, which includes the NFL<\/a>, UEFA Champions League<\/a>, PGA Tour<\/a>, and top-tier college athletics.<\/p>\n

For fans, the change is both financially and culturally significant. Pay-per-view bouts \u2014 once costing nearly $80 apiece \u2014 will be folded into a single Paramount+ subscription, while CBS broadcasts could introduce UFC to millions of casual viewers who have never paid for the sport.<\/p>\n

The agreement reflects a wider shift in the sports media market, as streaming platforms compete aggressively for premium live events to attract subscribers and boost engagement. With guaranteed payments averaging $1.1 billion per year, this ranks among the most lucrative broadcast deals in combat sports history \u2014 one poised to reshape the economics, accessibility, and mainstream profile of mixed martial arts for the decade ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a landmark shake-up of U.S. sports broadcasting, Paramount Global has wrestled away exclusive domestic media rights to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,6714,4846,641,40763,638,9489,13959,18031,82,40764,640,40765],"class_list":["post-63236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cbs","tag-cbs-sports","tag-fighting","tag-media-rights","tag-mma","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-global","tag-skydance","tag-sports","tag-tko-group-holdings","tag-ufc","tag-ultimate-fighting-championship-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}