UFC’s Next Power Move? Netflix Emerges As Prime Broadcaster.

Strained relations are developing between the UFC and ESPN regarding their broadcasting agreement. The promotion has seen an all-time high with their ESPN+ pay-per-view deal, but now, a new player might become the next platform for smooth fight streaming.

ESPN vs UFC

In 2010, ESPN displayed their initial interest in covering MMA after the immense success of UFC’s centurion event where the combined efforts of starfighters like Brock Lesnar, George St. Pierre, and Dan Henderson generated a whopping 1.6 million dollar pin ay-per-view buys for the promotion. Although ESPN didn’t have official broadcasting rights, they ensured covering everything related to that event.

Following the 100th event, many remarkable things happened for the UFC. They merged with WEC, purchased Strikforce, renewed deal with Fox, went international, and also included Women’s MMA which turned out to be revolutionary for the women’s combat sports.

This humongous development can only be apprehended by the ardent viewers of this sport, and soon, the promotion was going to take another drastic step. In 2015, the UFC’s parent company Zuffa LLC decided to sell the company for 4 billion dollars.

There were a couple of potential buyers, but in the end, WME-IMG (now Endeavour) purchased the UFC because the Fertida brothers had a connection with their CEO, Ari Emanuel. Dana White remained president with a 9% stake in the company.

Noticing the UFC’s growth, in 2018, ESPN decided to crack a whopping 600 million dollars per year deal for a five-year broadcasting contract succeeding 21st Century Fox. Since 2019, till now, ESPN has been the promotion’s broadcasting partner.

What Happened between ESPN and UFC?

The broadcasting bond between the UFC and ESPN is on the verge of being over. As they progress towards negotiating a new deal, the relationship is gradually souring as both parties are lodging complains about each other.

ESPN is concerned about UFC’s poor pay-per-view buys, and the UFC is not happy with their broadcasting partner’s streaming quality. The inception of this quarrel began with the streaming of UFC 313: Pereira vs. Ankalaev event, where people complained about constant bufferings whilst fights were going on.

So, both involved parties have enough reasons to dislike one another, and this kind of dispute usually resolves with a separation.

UFC president Dana White looked more pissed in this situation. Their fan-favorite fighter lost and he has to deal with the circumstances related to broadcasting.

“Oh yeah, it made it to me. They were having problems buying it on ESPN+. I don’t know what happened with their platform tonight. There were a lot of pissed-off people.” – White added.

Netflix emerges as the new contender for UFC’s broadcast deal.

The UFC is currently following in the footsteps of WWE, expecting to shift the broadcasting to Netflix. But, why them?

Both WWE and the UFC is under TKO, and recently, the former struck a $5 billion deal with the streaming giant Netflix. The platform is known for their awesome library of movies and web series, but recently they stepped into the domain of sports by streaming Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson which bought over 100 million viewers.

The UFC head honcho, Dana White is also looking for a deal with similar magnitude. The president is targeting a 1.5 billion dollar per year deal with Netflix, promising the viewers that the streaming experience is going to be seamless and not a bad experience like ESPN.

White on Dan Rafael’s podcast, “And the question is Who’s it going to be? Is it gonna be Amazon, YouTube, or Disney? The list goes on and on. That’s who the players will be. But what’s fascinating right now is when you look in, you got NFL, college football, NBA college basketball, you got the NHL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, you got the UFC, WWE, and tennis. All these sports are looking for rights deals right now, right? I always go out and figure out how to build s*** without the help of anybody.

Not sure, the UFC would stick to their usual pay-per-view system or we will see a total shift in their revenue model. Good or bad, it will be an interesting endevour for the company moving forward.