Just minutes after TKO Group Holdings posted their second-quarter earnings report for 2025, outlining the latest financial developments around WWE, UFC, and other parts of the company, the entertainment brand’s top names hopped on a call to field questions regarding their latest results and the future.
The hour-long broadcast included further explanation behind why WWE chose ESPN for their new Premium Live Events (PLEs) package, what update, if any, they have regarding a UFC media deal, and how things have been going in regards to their new boxing project.
Here are the top takeaways from the call:
Why TKO loves their new deal with ESPN
What TKO likes about the recently announced deal with ESPN goes beyond the numbers, as explained on Wednesday’s earnings call.
WWE announced this week that they have inked a five-year deal to stream Premium Live Events (PLEs) on ESPN’s platforms beginning in 2026, a deal reportedly worth a whopping $1.6 billion. This is an increase compared to the past deal that they had to air PLEs on NBCUniversal’s Peacock.
The number for the deal is strong, but a big part of why TKO liked the deal was the platform it gives them, utilizing both ESPN’s “linear” TV channels, as well as a direct-to-consumer streaming service, which is set to launch later this month.
“When all was said and done, we could have actually had a slightly higher rights fee by going with another partner,” TKO COO Mark Shapiro said. “But we felt the strength of ESPN’s brand, their reach, the platform, the makeup of their audience, and their D2C strategy, which is launching soon here, was just as important as the dollars.”
In an example of how ESPN’s platforms could be utilized, Shaprio threw out the idea of having an event like Summerslam or Wrestlemania have its first hour simulcast on TV before the show exclusively switched to a different platform.
“The idea of having a PLE … with the first hour or even two simulcast on ESPN linear and a D2C, with a handoff to a direct-to-consumer, you just can’t beat that proposition.”
TKO’s CFO, Andrew Schleimer, pointed out that WWE was selling less content, but for more money in the new deal. The new agreement with ESPN doesn’t come with NXT’s PLEs or the promotion’s thousands of hours of archival footage, all of which Peacock had obtained in their multi-year deal with the company. He explained that all of this content has been “retained for further monetization,” possibly getting sold off as part of a different package
UFC media rights package in ‘home stretch’
While the newly announced WWE agreement with ESPN took the spotlight on Wednesday, the looming UFC media rights deadline remained top of mind for many on the latest earnings call.
UFC has a little under four months before its current deal with ESPN comes to a close. Their landing spot in 2026, or landing spots, have yet to be confirmed. While TKO initially had a three-month exclusivity period to negotiate only with ESPN, they have now spent a majority of the year thus far on the free market, figuring out where the top MMA organization could land.
Shapiro noted this week that they are “in the home stretch” for UFC’s media deal, and emphasized that the market “remains strong” for “big event programming.” It has remained unclear if the finished deal will see UFC’s programming all stay in one spot, or if they will split their product into multiple packages, like what WWE has done.
“Have we found it to be more challenging than we initially thought? My answer is unequivocally, no,” Shapiro said. “And I’ll leave it at that.”
All stars aligning for ‘zero-risk’ boxing venture
Top names in TKO remained optimistic about their boxing plans on Wednesday.
In a venture which Shapiro described as “zero-risk,” he described how boxing could become the “fourth major sports asset” for TKO.
As outlined by Shapiro, the joint venture in collaboration with Saudi Arabia will see TKO receive a $10 million payment each year to run a “UFC-like” boxing tour. On top of that, they expect to net another $10 million for each super-fight they promote, which will be separate from their main boxing tour.
The official Zuffa Boxing project is expected to launch in early 2026. The first major part of the boxing venture will come next month, when Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford face off in a massive title bout, one which TKO has a hand in organizing.
Along with the strong support from Riyadh, it seems as though the only major roadblock to preventing a boxing “league” could be out of the way if the Ali Boxing Revival Act passes. The act, which allows promoters to operate outside of boxing’s sanctioning body system, running their own rankings and awarding their own titles, would give Zuffa Boxing the chance to run a league isolated from the sport’s main authorities.
“We are very optimistic that this legislation will move relatively quickly,” said UFC’s Lawrence Epstein.
A major part of TKO’s boxing plan would, of course, be a media deal. With media rights making up a huge chunk of UFC and WWE’s earnings, it’s crucial to obtain a real agreement before anything gets started.
Shapiro said that they have received “significant interest” from numerous U.S. companies, and that they believe they’ll have “something to announce soon” on that front.
