At the UFC 314 post-fight press conference, Dana White weighed in on the company’s relationship with ESPN. It was true that the UFC had to face a bit of trouble with ESPN during the initial stages of their partnership. However, as the deal progressed with the addition of PPV streaming rights in 2019, things became smooth for the UFC head honcho. But not all good things tend to last. The deal will come to an end in 2025. Right now, there’s a negotiation window, and White claimed, “We’ll obviously start talking to lots of different people and we’ll see what the options are out there.” However, the chairman of ESPN, Jimmy Pitaro, seemed to have a different opinion.
In a conversation with the Sports Business Journal, Pitaro put some thought into the demands set forth by the MMA promotion. In 2019, the UFC and ESPN entered a 5-year deal worth $1.5 billion. However, in January 2025, reports claimed that the UFC sought more than a billion dollars a year for the new broadcasting deal. Of course, things were back on the bumpy road for ESPN, as White took a look at his options. It seemed like he would follow WWE and enter a deal with the $422B streaming giant, Netflix. But with the exclusive negotiation window coming to a close, where does Pitaro stand regarding resigning the deal with the UFC?
The chairman of the $25B broadcasting company said, “The exclusive negotiating window is expiring imminently, but I wouldn’t read too much into that. We’re not hyper-focused on that window. We know that there’s going to be interest in the UFC and that’s great for the sport. It’s great for them. But we remain interested in trying to figure something out with those guys.” Pitaro declared that the UFC has been really good for his company. After all, ESPN+ had the MMA promotion as its marquee property, back in 2018. And that’s a reality that still remains true. He continued, “We also at the same time believe that we have been a great partner to the UFC in terms of our promotion, in terms of our commitment to the sport of mixed martial arts and specifically the UFC across our studio programming across dot com, the ESPN app.”
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Needless to say, the future of the broadcasting deal between ESPN and UFC still remains in a land of shadows. But with the talks of UFC partnering with Netflix, the hype around the broadcasting deal has been rising. Well, that’s how the comments section of the Instagram post by Haymakers looked when they shared Pitaro’s words on their profile. Let’s see what the fight fans had to say.
Fans take a stand for Dana White to sign broadcasting rights deal with Netflix
Even though the partnership between ESPN and UFC was considered a success, the fans seemed to have a different viewpoint. According to them, Netflix is a way better partner for broadcasting UFC events. A fan wrote, “Anything but ESPN. Netflix is cool, I like what they’ve done with RAW. I just hope it comes with more content then just live fights, I want documentaries, shows, etc.” The notion against ESPN seemed a bit too strong as a fan commented, “Rather watch UFC anywhere other than ESPN.” This seemed to be stemming from the frequent buffering that often spoils the users’ experience with ESPN. One of the fans backed the notion with an example from WWE. The comment read, “WWE on Netflix has been great — I would go that route.”
Meanwhile, a few others had a better plan. They believed that the UFC broadcasting rights should be split between Netflix and ESPN. A fan suggested, “Oh this is easy. Put all the UFC Fight Nights on Netflix and leave the PPVs on ESPN.” But there were still some fans who didn’t like Netflix. One such comment read, “They are about to f—— ruin everything bro. I’m not buying Netflix.”
Of course, pricing was yet another issue. With the UFC demanding more than $1 billion a year, we can expect the rates to skyrocket. A fan weighed in on this and wrote, “As long as the price goes down I’ll be happy.” But White has a dream of following the trend set by the NFL, the NBA, and other leagues. Yes, Dana White wants to broadcast fights on multiple platforms. But that’s a bad idea as per fans. One comment read, “If UFC events get split into multiple platforms they can kiss viewership good bye.”
What platform do you think the UFC should choose to partner with? Would the broadcast on Netflix be better than the current scenario with ESPN? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
The post ‘Anything but ESPN’- Pressure Mounts on Dana White to Sign $422B Partner After Chairman Breaks Silence on UFC TV Deal appeared first on EssentiallySports.
