Days after sealing its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media, Paramount on Monday struck an agreement to acquire US media rights to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for seven years starting in 2026. Under the deal, which is valued at $7.7 billion in total, Paramount will exclusively stream all UFC events in the US via Paramount+.
The package covers UFC’s full slate of 13 marquee numbered events and 30 “Fight Nights” each year. Payments will be weighted, with lower costs in the early years and higher payments toward the end of the contract.
No more pay-per-view
A major shift from the current model, Paramount will now make the events available at no extra cost to subscribers. This will scrap the pay-per-view system used by ESPN+ for premium UFC fights. ESPN has been paying around $500 million annually for UFC rights. Its deal will expire at the end of this year.
New Paramount CEO David Ellison said the acquisition underscores his strategy to drive subscriber growth through high-quality exclusive content. The CEO called UFC a “global sports powerhouse”. “The addition of UFC’s year-round must-watch events to our platforms is a major win,” Ellison added.
Streaming wars in the US
The deal between Paramount and UFC puts light on a broader trend in the streaming wars. Live sports rights are becoming a key battleground as cord-cutting accelerates. Rivals have been making aggressive plays. For instance, Netflix recently secured a $5 billion, 10-year global deal for WWE Raw beginning in 2025 and picked up NFL Christmas Day games. In the US, ESPN has locked in long-term extensions with the NFL, NHL, MLB and College Football Playoff and is preparing a joint sports streaming venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, Reuters reported.
UFC stages about 43 live events annually, reaching an estimated 100 million fans in the US and nearly 950 million households worldwide, the report further stated.