The UFC’s ongoing media rights negotiations are believed to have multiple outlets at the negotiating table with the potential of splitting its rights.
John Ourand at Puck reports in his weekly Varsity newsletter that the fight promotion is in talks with incumbent ESPN, as well as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and a wild card option in WBD.
UFC left its exclusive negotiating window with ESPN in mid-April as its television and streaming rights package comes due at the end of the year.
Ourand reports that if a renewal is reached with parent company Disney, UFC programming would almost surely be included on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service, which launched this fall.
He adds that Amazon Prime is most interested in licensing UFC’s pay-per-view content while WBD would place UFC programming across its linear channels and stream on HBO Max.
Ourand’s sourcing indicates the likely scenario is for the UFC programming to be split into two packages among suitors, with the unlikely scenario of three packages.
TKO already has a relationship with Netflix through their extensive multi-billion dollar deal for WWE Raw in the United States and worldwide distribution in many international markets.
