UFC Wants to See More UFC Content on ABC in Next Deal with ESPN

UFC wants to keep growing its audience. That’s the message behind Endeavor and TKO president Mark Shapiro’s recent comments about the MMA companies’ media rights as they are set to start negotiating with Disney on a new TV deal for UFC events. Discussing those upcoming negotiations at the Leaders Week sports business conference in London this week, Shapiro reiterated his desire to see UFC continue partnering with ESPN and said that he’d like to see more events air on ABC as well.

Key Details:

• Shapiro said expanding UFC events on ABC is a great way to grow UFC’s audience.
• The executive also discussed the potential of adding multiple broadcast partners in UFC’s next deal.
• UFC’s exclusive negotiating window with ESPN stretches from January to April.

Shapiro talked about his eagerness to renew his broadcast deal with ESPN last month at a Goldman Sachs conference, and reiterated those sentiments at the Leaders Week conference. The current agreement between ESPN and TKO to air UFC fights goes through the end of 2025.

“We see a long-term future with ESPN and the Walt Disney Company,” he said in London this week. “We’re not looking to leave, but it takes two, and we have to make sure the deal is right.

ESPN+ is the service that normally carries UFC pay-per-view events, but undercard events also air on linear ESPN channels, and occasionally some have aired on ABC. Shapiro says he’s especially interested in increasing the number of fights that air on the broadcast network, which can help increase the audience of UFC even further.

“ESPN heretofore bought the library,” he said. “So they can run second airs, re-airs, put together all kinds of compilation shows, and they’re putting it on all their networks, plus news, ESPN2, ESPN3. We’re even getting live fights – and I want more of those in the deal – on ABC on Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons, which is tremendous and, again, just broadens our audience.”

Relate: Watch UFC 308 PPV for Just $70 with Early-Bird Discount from ESPN+

Shapiro knows he’s got a popular sports property on his hands, however, and wants to make the most lucrative deal possible for UFC. If that means spreading its rights among two or three different broadcast partners, that’s something he’s willing to explore.

“In the new deal, we’re open to having multiple partners,” he said. “We prefer to keep it all within the Walt Disney Company because inside the Walt Disney Company, you have multiple partners. All those ESPN channels, ABC, Hulu, Disney+, I mean, it’s really all becoming one platform, if you will, and they’re selling and marketing it that way. So we’d love to keep it there. But we do know there are other platforms that can help us grow our sport and may be more aligned with a certain strategy, meaning premium or volume, and UFC offers both.”

Disney is indeed making big efforts to consolidate its content. The Disney+ app now offers its own content plus Hulu titles for customers who have both services and is also introducing an ESPN tile with some live sports at some point before the end of 2024.

Shapiro left the door open for his combat sports promotion to seek greener pastures if he doesn’t see the kind of revenue commitments he’s hoping for from Disney and ESPN.

“If we don’t reach an agreement on what we expect, what we think our property is worth, we’ll talk to others. And just like with Netflix and WWE, we know there’s a line of others that are interested in the power of the UFC.”

Netflix scooped up the rights to stream “WWE Raw” starting in 2025, agreeing to pay $500 million per year to do so. Shapiro clearly sees such deals as a viable alternative to ESPN if the two sides don’t agree on the money in their next talks.

The exclusive negotiating window between ESPN and UFC opens in January. Shapiro has made clear UFC’s preference to stay with ABC and ESPN, but if the numbers don’t align he’s also plainly willing to look elsewhere.