TKO, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is negotiating with Netflix on a potential deal that could lead the mixed war arts company to the world’s most popular streaming service, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
The UFC has reached the end of its five-year, $1.5 billion deal with ESPN. The exclusive negotiation period between ESPN and the UFC ended on April 15th.
The obstacles remain for the UFC to move to Netflix while both parties are talking. TKO wants the UFC to $1 billion a year. Additionally, multiple outlets are considering achieving their annual targets.
Netflix doesn’t want to add a pay-per-view model to its current service. Streamers are said to be well aware of how higher subscription prices push audiences away. The billion-dollar deal will allow Netflix to increase subscription rates again.
Sources say Netflix can either take on UFC fight night as normal programming or add another tier unique to the UFC to keep the subs of common subscribers low.
TKO wants to keep UFC at ESPN, including UFC president Mark Shapiro. However, interest from ESPN may be boiling down as Disney has begun to focus on long-term, large-scale sports leagues with more guaranteed ratings like the NFL, NBA and college football.
TKO considers ESPN for five years at ESPN a key high mark to make the company and MMA a legitimate big league sport. Other sports like the NHRA and NASCAR have been negatively affected in the past after leaving ESPN in other networks. Their sports coverage has effectively disappeared. ESPN sometimes has difficulty evaluating the show that morning, but it remains at the heart of sports debate and is something the league doesn’t want to be left out of chatter.
ESPN and the UFC reportedly were very far apart when the exclusive negotiation window ended, but adding Netflix as a separate outlet to the mix gives UFC more exposure on two major platforms and the opportunity to reach TKO’s target of $1 billion a year.
TKO negotiated a five-year deal with Netflix for WWE Raw, which began airing on streamers in January.
