According to a report, the UFC’s exclusive negotiating window is set to expire in mid-April.
John Ourand at Puck reports that the exclusive window between the fight promotion and ESPN will run until April 15. The UFC is expected to allow it to lapse.
Ourand stated that the window opened around four weeks ago with the rights to the UFC package expiring at the end of the year. The deal was signed in 2018 and includes the streaming rights to the UFC pay-per-views on its ESPN+ platform.
From The Varsity newsletter:
ESPN hasn’t soured on UFC, but the league needs a stalking horse bid in order to trigger any significant increase over the current deal. Right now, ESPN pays UFC around $550 million per year for about 30 fight nights and 12 pay-per-view events. In fact, the network would likely try to keep the pay-per-view rights, particularly since it’s launching its direct-to-consumer service later this year. Meanwhile, UFC should expect some interest on the open market—both Netflix and Amazon Prime have expressed a willingness to talk.
Netflix has increased its move toward live sports and sports-adjacent programming with last November’s fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, the NFL games on Christmas Day, and its recent launch of WWE programming including the U.S. rights to Raw.
Amazon Prime Video’s Global Head of Sports, Jay Marine, recently sat down with CNBC’s Alex Sherman and expressed their desire to go after UFC’s programming.
Beyond its pay-per-view and Fight Night cards, UFC’s original programming includes The Ultimate Fighter and Dana White’s Contender Series.
