Mark Shapiro, president and COO of TKO Group Holdings, shed light on the recently completed UFC media rights negotiations during a panel appearance at the Goldman Sachs telecom conference in San Francisco. While Paramount ultimately landed the package in a $7.7 billion, seven-year deal, Shapiro revealed that ESPN remained a factor throughout the process.
The longtime sports media executive said the network, which has carried UFC programming since 2019, was “always in the mix” to retain rights. However, TKO’s expectations for a significant increase in rights fees meant talks with ESPN eventually reached an impasse.
“We set our sights on talking with everybody else,” Shapiro said. “From Warner Bros. Discovery, to a lesser extent Apple. Amazon in a big way, YouTube in a big way. Netflix in a big way, DAZN in a big way.”
The decision to move forward with Paramount was partly a forward-looking bet. Shapiro praised the Ellison family, who control Paramount, as “visionaries” positioned at the intersection of technology and content.
Still, ESPN’s role in the discussions highlights the network’s ongoing balancing act in live sports. With a massive rights portfolio already spanning the NFL, NBA, and college football. The cost of retaining UFC proved too steep under TKO’s new financial goals.
Shapiro noted that a global rights deal with Netflix was also on the table, structured similarly to the streamer’s recent acquisition of WWE’s “Raw.” Instead, TKO subsidiary IMG will handle UFC’s international rights across 150 foreign markets, a move Shapiro argued was the better financial play.
“Selling media rights on UFC globally was in our best interest,” he said. “Frankly, we thought IMG would do better than Netflix.”
The broader message from Shapiro was that TKO, the parent company of both WWE and UFC, is now focused on operational execution rather than major acquisitions. He cited the company’s plans for increased marketing, stronger launches, and improving margins as the next phase of growth.
“We’re not here to talk about acquisitions right now,” Shapiro said. “Of course we’ll be opportunistic, but we’re here to talk about executing. Let’s expand our margins, let’s bring in our free cashflow and let’s get it back to shareholders.”
TKO has already taken steps in that direction. The company recently announced its dividend would double, following a $2 billion share repurchase program unveiled last year.
For ESPN, being “in the mix” but ultimately sidelined underscores how competitive the media rights landscape has become. With streaming platforms investing heavily and traditional networks facing budget constraints, the UFC’s decision to shift from ESPN to Paramount marks the latest example of how quickly the balance of power can shift in sports media.
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