Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison believes the company’s multi-billion dollar deal with the UFC could help drive subscriptions for Paramount+ and make the streamer the “home for combat sports” starting next year.
Speaking on a quarterly earnings call earlier this week, Ellison reflected on the $7.7 billion, seven-year deal his company reached with the UFC, bringing the top MMA promoter to Paramount’s platforms beginning in 2026.
The deal will give the company 43 live events per year, most of which will be available exclusively through the Paramount+ streaming service. The deal will most notably eliminate UFC’s long-standing pay-per-view business model, which caused fans to make payments to view the promotion’s biggest events each month. Moving forward, all of it will be accessible to those who subscribe to Paramount+.
Ellison had praise for the agreement, mentioning how the company had secured the rights to all of a sports league’s top programming, something rarely possible nowadays:
“We could not be more excited about our partnership with TKO, Dana White, and the UFC,” Ellison said on Monday. “And look, I’d also loop into that Zuffa Boxing. Those two deals obviously makes Paramount+ really the home for combat sports in the United States, and we also have rights in Latin America and Australia. When you also look at the UFC, it is the largest sport that is not basically split off across multiple platforms. It really is a unicorn sports property, and we think it’s going to drive a tremendous amount of value in terms of both subscriber growth and engagement across Paramount+ as well as CBS, where there will be some aspect of the UFC that also lives on CBS.”
Ellison mentioned his belief that UFC will continue to grow as a promotion with Paramount+. He noted that the promotion used to operate under a “double-paywall” system with ESPN, as viewers of PPV cards had to not only subscribe to ESPN+ but also make a one-time payment to view the card live.
The price to watch all UFC cards will drop significantly as part of the new deal, which he argues will bring more eyeballs to the product.
Paramount+ currently has two tiers of subscription: Customers can pay $7.99 per month or $59.99 on an annual basis to view programs on the service with ads. For an ad-free experience, a price tag of $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year is available.
The price of Paramount+ is expected to increase in the first quarter of 2026, as noted in a recent press release from the company. Variety wrote this week that both tiers will see a $1 increase on the monthly fee ($8.99 or $13.99), while the annual subscriptions, which are still cheaper than the monthly option, will see a significant jump ($89.99 or $139.99).
