All indications are that UFC got a great media rights deal.
But while the MMA giant had 7.7 billion reasons to take its U.S. rights to Paramount Global, one of the industry’s most prominent insiders is sounding the alarm on UFC’s life after ESPN.
Appearing on the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Ariel Helwani discussed the TKO-owned company’s new deal. And in doing so, the longtime MMA reporter raised concerns about the exposure — or lack thereof — that the UFC will receive once it’s no longer an ESPN property after having been propped up by the Worldwide Leader for the last seven years.
“One thing that I don’t think that has been talked about enough in all of this, and I can’t wait to see what it turns into — and again, you’re the perfect person to talk to this about — is you know that when ESPN is out of business with a sports entity, they essentially stopped covering that entity, right?” Helwani told Simmons.
“The NHL corollary,” The Ringer founder mused.
“They’re the perfect example,” Helwani agreed. “They left, they stopped covering them. They’re back, they’ve got ancillary shows, they’ve got analysts, they’ve got the coverage on SportsCenter. I’m fascinated to see how ESPN treats UFC. If history is any indication, it will be the same way.
“And what they lose out from that — because I really do think it’s very valuable to have the Daniel Cormier Friday at the weigh-in spot on First Take before a pay-per-view, where he’s breaking things down with Stephen A. Having all the stuff on their Instagram, having all their stuff on their TikTok. Like those numbers are insane compared to what CBS/Paramount can do for them. And to me that’s not being talked about enough… I think part of the reason why the UFC is getting a billion dollars [per year] from Paramount is because ESPN elevated them.”
Helwani isn’t wrong, and it would hardly be a surprise to learn that ESPN’s offer was significantly lower than Paramount’s, knowing the amount of exposure that would have been built in. Look no further than the fact that UFC’s original deal with ESPN in 2018 was a five-year pact worth a total of $1.5 billion, and that the MMA promotion just signed a media rights contract worth more than $1 billion annually in part because its presence on ESPN airwaves helped fuel an increase in popularity.
It’s also worth noting that even with a streaming presence, Paramount is more traditional than new school. The host of The Ariel Helwani Show even went as far as to speculate that UFC president Dana White would have preferred a deal with ESPN or Netflix, knowing that either platform would have been more appealing from an image standpoint.
“Forget the price tag. He’s an optics guy,” Helwani said of White. “There is no chance in hell that he said, ‘My top choice was Paramount+ and CBS.’ Even yesterday on that CNBC interview, they’re talking about the Tiffany Network, they’re talking about like old school CBS. Dana White’s not that kind of guy. He wanted to be where the cool kids are hanging out.”
That’s not to say that UFC won’t be receiving plenty of exposure in its new deal, especially if its planned event at the White House ultimately airs on CBS. As for ESPN, it will be worth monitoring how much UFC coverage it provides once its current deal expires at the end of this year and how it fills that void once its MMA coverage is inevitably reduced.
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