ESPN plans to keep television rights to the UFC. The two sides will start working on a deal soon.
Dana White told Sports Business Journal that he has a dinner scheduled with ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro and Endeavor President and COO Mark Shapiro soon to begin discussing their shared goals.
Details of the current deal between ESPN and UFC are not available, but it is believed that the network pays $300 million per year to carry the fights. ESPN’s streaming platform ESPN+ has been the exclusive home for UFC’s pay-per-view events since 2019.
“We are proud stewards of UFC and the UFC’s business, and we value that relationship tremendously,” Matt Kenny, ESPN’s VP of Programming & Acquisitions for Pro Basketball and Combat Sports, told SBJ. “So we want to do whatever we can to grow our business and also grow the UFC’s business.”
In May, ESPN reported that ESPN+ had over 25 million subscribers. UFC is seen as one of the primary drivers behind that growth.
