It’s been 10 days since ESPN’s exclusive negotiation window with the UFC expired, and fans are still waiting for answers. With Dana White in the thick of negotiations, uncertainty looms. The burning question? Will fans have to pay even more for future pay-per-views? As new players line up at the UFC’s door, the promotion is reportedly chasing a billion-dollar-per-year broadcasting deal. While that spells big business for the UFC, fans fear a steep price hike is on the horizon.
There are many contenders for the UFC broadcasting deal, but are they ready to pay a hefty billion dollars a year to the UFC for the broadcasting rights? Tensions are bubbling up beneath the surface between ESPN and UFC on their multi-year partnership deal. ESPN is arguably frustrated with the declining Pay-Per-View numbers, often falling drastically short of the guaranteed 300k buys per event promise. On the other hand, the Dana White-led promotion is quite angry about the technical glitch that happened back at UFC 313, which seriously hampered the promotion’s brand image.
While the UFC head honcho has stated that they would love to continue their partnership with ESPN, things are not exactly smooth sailing for them. On the other hand, the UFC is looking at different partners for the broadcasting deal, and Netflix is a frontrunner, or at least that is what Dana White would like to think. The multi-billion-dollar OTT platform entered into a landmark 10-year deal worth over $5 billion with WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw, last year. Since WWE is the sister company of the UFC, the UFC CEO believed this would make negotiations much easier for them—but how wrong they were.
When asked about the potential Netflix-UFC deal, CEO Ted Sarandos gave an unclear and uncertain response. “I’m not going to comment on any of those specific opportunities at this time,” said the Netflix CEO as he dropped the ball on the UFC. He further added, “But I will steer you back to the letter to show you that our live event strategy is unchanged. We remain really focused on the big, breakthrough events. Our audiences love them.”
MMA: UFC Fight Night-Johnson vs Reis, Apr 15, 2017 Kansas City, MO, USA UFC President Dana White following the Demetrious Johnson not pictured and Wilson Reis not pictured fight during UFC Fight Night at Sprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports, 15.04.2017 21:15:30, 10015017, UFC Fight Night, Wilson Reis, Demetrious Johnson, Sprint Center, MMA PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xRonxChenoyx 10015017
To put it very vaguely, Netflix is not interested in a complete broadcasting package but rather in a specific one. For example, the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight. With the uncertainty on both sides, the fans are in limbo as they have been expecting some spicy news coming from the UFC war room. Let’s have a look at why the fans are worried about the UFC’s billion-dollar deal.
Fans fear rising PPV price as Dana White scavenges for a billion-dollar-a-year deal
A post on Reddit had a screenshot of an Instagram post from the ‘Jaxxon Podcast’ account. The caption claimed that the UFC was chasing a billion-dollar-a-year deal, a steep rise from the $450M per year deal with ESPN. There’s cause to worry, and celebrate here.
The UFC runs on a pay-per-view model that charges the U.C viewers a massive $79.99 per event on top of their ESPN+ subscription. This has drawn sharp criticism for its steep prices, and UFC CEO Dana White wanted no smoke from the price hike. He has voiced his frustration over this, but his hands were tied due to the deal with ESPN and the decisions of its parent Disney. Looking at this, some fans fear that the UFC might increase the price of the PPV with the much higher priced deal: “PPV cost will go up to $150.”
Then came the second issue – fighter pay. Does a billion-dollar deal mean more money for the fighters? Not necessarily. What if the promotion tightens their purse to balance things out and ensure profits? A social media user stated, with sarcasm, that the young fighters might finally receive an income, which is admirable: “Good time to be a hardworking young pro dreaming of 8K show money.”
But there is a silver lining here. The outdated PPV model might finally get the boot. One fan is hopeful that the next broadcasting deal will witness the end of the PPV model and that could bring back the premiumness of the sport which was lacking in the ESPN era: “My hope is that Netflix, Amazon, etc.. some major streaming network decides to do away with PPV and doesn’t require the UFC to do 40+ events per year like ESPN did. S–t watered down the sport BAD.”
Another fan had a question for the UFC CEO, “Why doesn’t ufc use their own network in ufc fight pass app ?? if there so confident in their business model asking for 1 billion annually ? they priced out all their loyal fans.” The answer to the question is rather simple: the promotion doesn’t have the necessary assets to build its own broadcasting app. Even if it acquires such assets, maintaining them would be a significant operational burden. If the promotion doesn’t generate enough revenue, scaling down the business will likely become a necessity.
Furthermore, another fan joked, “And the price I pay for PPV cards will remain $0.” Last but not least, a fan emphasized that the Nelk boys might capitalize on this broadcasting deal: “Nelk boys getting double the money for gambling.”
As uncertainty looms around the corner for the UFC broadcasting deal, who do you think will be the final winner? State your opinion in the comments below.
The post Dana White’s Planned Billion Dollar TV Deal Gets Bad News From Fans Amid Netflix Rumors appeared first on EssentiallySports.
