In 2018, the UFC and ESPN signed a five-year, $1.5 billion deal for the promotion’s domestic broadcast rights beginning in 2019. In early 2019, they extended the deal by two years and added pay-per-view streaming rights. Since then, the journey of the UFC and ESPN has had a love-hate twist to it, ever since their first presentation together. The deal ended on a bitter note from the UFC CEO and President Dana White‘s side, who said, “When the window opens, we’ll obviously start talking to lots of different people and we’ll see what the options are out there.”
The statement by White divided the MMA community into two thoughts. One half thought, where will the promotions presentation go from here? Will there be a new broadcast partner ready to welcome us with open arms, just like ESPN? Yet the other half was filled with enthusiasm and curiosity to watch their favorite sport being presented on their favorite platforms, such as Netflix or Amazon.
But after a failed negotiation with Netflix, it seems the troubles for Dana White are only increasing. You see, since the end of the contract between the UFC and ESPN, White’s promotion has only met uncertainty as to where their product will go from this point on. No confirmations were ever made. But a new trouble has started to take over their torn relationship. Reportedly, ESPN has been removing UFC content from its ESPN+ app as a sign of a contract renewal.
An MMA account named Haymakers revealed, “Where will the UFC go? Events prior to UFC 308, excluding a few random Fight Night Cards, no longer appear on ESPN+, but many PPVs are still accessible through Hulu. With DWCs set to come back in August, it’s surprising that old episodes are disappearing.”
Is this a response from ESPN to hit back at UFC for Dana White’s words of anger and disappointment? Their time together was filled with technical glitches on the app, broadcasting issues for the fans, and a plethora of complaints about their presentation of the promotion, yet the present situation has allowed them to land a hit on UFC.
But that is not the only heavy blow that UFC has had to deal with in recent months. Before ESPN ever hinted at UFC for a contract renewal, Dana White’s dreams were crushed by Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.
Dana White’s Netflix broadcast for UFC dream crushed by “unacceptable” offer
As the UFC’s broadcasting deal with ESPN nears its end, discussions about a potential partnership with Netflix have intensified more than ever in the MMA community. UFC President Dana White has expressed interest in exploring new avenues for content distribution, including streaming platforms like Netflix. He even had a leaning toward switching from the PPV format to a live stream-based broadcast on their app like it is for WWE.
White said, “We do what works for the network—what do they want to do? Do they want to just put it on their air? Do they want to do pay-per-view? Do they want to put it behind a paywall?” The openness seen in White’s sentences displayed his sights set for the bigger fish and his willingness to adapt to platforms like Netflix, which primarily operate on a subscription-based model.
Netflix has shown interest in presenting live sports on its streaming service, recently partnering with WWE to host its 41st WrestleMania on the show as well. Furthermore, since WWE and UFC both are owned by TKO, many fans believed the UFC will eventually secure the Netflix deal. However, the annual broadcasting price set to buy the UFC’s product was deemed “unacceptable” by the Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.
Sarandos is already reaping the rewards of his deal with WWE, but in his words, their priority for live events is still a small part of the whole company. Sarandos said, “Our live strategy is unchanged. We remain really focused on the big-breakthrough events. Our audience loves them, live is really a small part of our content spend.” Explaining how the $1 billion per annum deal proposed by the UFC was too much for a service already on a roll with the success of WWE.
So what’s to come next for Dana White? Will the UFC boss take his product back to ESPN? Or will the business tycoon in White take over and finally work out a new partnership with Netflix? He could also shock the world by going for a third party like Amazon instead. But in all sincerity, White has just till the end of this year to make it all happen. Will he pull out the W or be forced to settle for an L? Let us know in the comments.
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