TKO posted its earnings report for the first quarter of 2025, followed by its call with media analysts on Thursday evening.
The tone of the call was upbeat, yet cautious. The company exceeded expectations for the quarter, allowing it to increase its level of guidance for the year, where its core properties are expected to exceed $3 billion in revenue.
This was the first quarter with IMG incorporated into its financial breakdown as its own section next to WWE and UFC’s performances. IMG and On Location will be combined under the same tab, while PBR (Professional Bull Riding) will be filed under “Corporate and other”.
CEO Ari Emanuel opened the call outlining notable markers throughout the first three months of the year, including the UFC signing its largest partnership deal to date with Monster Energy, and a “nine-figure” deal with Meta. The UFC also achieved its highest-grossing Fight Night card in history with the March 22 event from the O2 Arena in London, headlined by Leon Edwards and Sean Brady.
WWE’s quarter was strengthened by the launch on Netflix, an increase in media rights reflecting SmackDown’s expansion to three hours and its European events in March, including Raw and SmackDown episodes. WWE ran thirteen European events between March 14 – 31.
President and COO Mark Shapiro was mum on the status of its media rights negotiations for the UFC, which exited its exclusive negotiating window with incumbent ESPN on April 15. The executive categorized the talks as “thoughtful and strategic” with third parties, but emphasizing ESPN still “heavily in the mi,x” and Shapiro said his former employer was one of the best marketing machines in the business. He later added that the market was strong for UFC’s rights and singled out their ability to reach males under the age of eighteen, and on par with the NBA in that demographic.
Shapiro opened up further on TKO’s expansion into boxing. Last week, it was announced that the first card under their banner would take place on September 12 in Las Vegas, featuring Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford. Shapiro said they are aiming to host around twelve cards per year, in addition to “one to four super cards”, such as the September 12 event. They will not be naming the venture “TKO Boxing” with a name to be unveiled shortly.
TKO will assist Saudi Arabia with the media rights, global partnerships, and production for the “super cards”, which are funded by the Saudis. TKO will separately sell the media rights for its twelve events per year, indicating there will be two tiers of its boxing strategy. Previously, Shapiro noted that they would be paid a licensing fee over the next five years by the Saudis and would obtain an equity stake over the next five years.
There was some trepidation by Shapiro regarding the current state of the economy and its unpredictability. He noted how advertising spending is usually the first area to be slashed by companies during a weak economic period, and they must exercise “responsibility” for TKO shareholders. He added that media rights have been able to withstand bad economic periods in the past, but acknowledged, “the market is tightening up”.
Near the end, a question was asked about WWE’s pending acquisition of Lucha Libre AAA, which is scheduled to close in the third quarter.
Shapiro showed a huge enthusiasm for this product and TKO’s ability to grow AAA on many fronts, including media rights, sponsorships, live events, and consumer products, while tapping into a larger audience with their resources. He credited Nick Khan and Paul Levesque for unearthing this deal and was confident the AAA product “is going to catch a lot of fire”.
AAA discussion on today’s TKO earnings call, with comments from TKO COO Mark Shapiro, WWE President Nick Khan, and TKO CFO Andrew Schleimer.
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— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) May 8, 2025
Regarding the price for AAA, CFO Andrew Schleimer said that the short-term financial impact was not meaningful to the overall picture without specifics.
Khan joined the discussion, pointing to the spike in its Latino viewership when Penta and Rey Fenix appear on its programming and compared them to the spike they saw with Bad Bunny.
They were asked about other opportunities around the world where WWE could see similar results as AAA, but they didn’t address any other areas they are scouting or showing interest in similar acquisitions.
