Dana White On How UFC Landed Its Blockbuster $7.7 Billion Streaming Deal With Paramount

Forbes

The lord of the Octagon reveals why he wanted David Ellison’s muscle behind his MMA giant, why pay-per-view events no longer work, and what a potential UFC fight at the White House would look like on CBS.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2025/08/11/dana-white-on-how-ufc-landed-its-blockbuster-77-billion-streaming-deal-with-paramount/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Dana White on how UFC landed its blockbuster $7.7 billion streaming deal

00:08with Paramount.

00:11When David Ellison sat in the front row at a pair of UFC events in April and June, just

00:15a few seats away from Donald Trump, media analysts wondered whether the 42-year-old

00:20CEO of Skydance Media, and son of the world's second richest man, Larry Ellison, was using

00:26the opportunity to smooth over any political concerns about his $8 billion acquisition of

00:32Paramount.

00:34The deal, which was held up by Trump's FCC for months, officially closed last week.

00:40But it appears the merger wasn't the only multi-billion-dollar deal Ellison was working

00:44on in those ringside seats.

00:47On Monday, the Las Vegas-based UFC announced a seven-year $7.7 billion media rights deal

00:54with Paramount to stream all of its fights on Paramount Plus in the United States, with

00:59select events to be simulcast on CBS.

01:03UFC CEO Dana White tells Forbes he had a pre-existing relationship with Larry Ellison and spoke with

01:10David, one of the many network executives who were looking to land the MMA behemoth, at

01:15each of those events.

01:17Ellison then swooped in and knocked out the competition just days after the merger between

01:22his Skydance and Paramount was approved.

01:25White says, quote,

01:27These guys came in aggressive with an all-or-nothing approach and said,

01:31We want the whole thing.

01:32The Ellisons are brilliant businessmen and have a whole game plan behind this thing.

01:37I can't wait to be in business with them.

01:41At $1.1 billion per year in average annual value, the UFC will now earn nearly as much

01:47in media rights fees as MLB, $1.8 billion, the Olympics, $1.3 billion, March Madness, $1.1

01:56billion, and NASCAR, $1.1 billion, dwarfing the likes of the NHL, $635 million, and the PGA

02:05tour, $700 million, and that figure covers only the United States.

02:11The UFC will continue to sell its international rights territory by territory through IMG,

02:17a category worth an estimated $250 million per year.

02:22Unlike other sports leagues, however, the UFC funds its own broadcast productions to maintain

02:27control over the look and feel of its events.

02:30Any talk of offloading those costs to a partner, and thus ceding control, was a non-starter.

02:36The 56-year-old White says, quote, It's going to be like that until I leave.

02:42Paramount's annual payouts will nearly double the UFC's current media rights revenue from

02:47ESPN, the promotion's partner since 2019.

02:51The existing deal will continue through the end of 2025 and pays the UFC an estimated $350

02:57million per year to distribute 30 UFC fight nights per year on ESPN+.

03:03Additionally, under the most recent extension signed in 2023, ESPN pays an estimated $250

03:10million per year up front for the UFC's 13 so-called numbered events, which the network

03:16then offers to ESPN Plus subscribers for an additional pay-per-view fee, keeping all of

03:21the pay-per-view sales revenue.

03:24The major change in this new deal is the elimination of the pay-per-view model that has been a bedrock

03:29of UFC programming since its inception in 1993.

03:34Mark Shapiro, president and chief operating officer of UFC parent company TKO Holdings,

03:40says UFC has wanted to ditch the pay-per-view model since the beginning of negotiations with

03:44potential partners in February.

03:47He says that at nearly $100 per month for fans to access both tiers of UFC events, the model

03:52had gotten too expensive for many fans, leading to a massive spike in pirated streams during

03:57the biggest events.

04:00As negotiations continued this summer, White and Shapiro assumed the UFC would need to divide

04:05its media rights package among several partners.

04:08At one point, they considered using as many as five different distributors, with Netflix

04:12and Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly included among the suitors.

04:17Over time, Paramount emerged as the likely partner for Fight Nights, but conversations with multiple

04:22networks and streamers continued for the premium event rights until Ellison Skydance officially

04:28took over Paramount last Thursday and hammered out a deal for the entire package within 48 hours.

04:36For full coverage, check out Matt Craig's piece on Forbes.com.

04:41This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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