MIAMI – Dana White addressed the UFC’s ESPN deal coming to a detailed.
The UFC’s exclusive negotiating window with ESPN ends Tuesday, where the promotion can now confer with other networks and potentially land a brand new home starting 2026.
In 2018, the UFC and ESPN signed a five-year, $1.5 billion deal for domestic broadcast rights starting in 2019. In early 2019, they prolonged the deal two years and added pay-per-view streaming rights.
“When the window opens, we’ll obviously start talking to numerous different people and we’ll see what the choices are on the market,” White told MMA Junkie and other reporters on the UFC 314 post-fight press conference. “We’ve said this each time: There could possibly be a time after we find yourself on several different networks like all other sports do.
“I like ESPN. I’ve said it again and again: We had a little bit of a rocky start, which is normal in any relationship, but we’re in an awesome place with ESPN. Whether we re-sign with them or don’t, I actually have nothing but great things to say about my time at ESPN.”
White was then asked if he’d wish to keep on with the identical event format, which saw 42 events in 2024.
“I don’t know,” White said. “It depends upon what ESPN or wherever else we go is searching for. Many of the times while you do these deals, you’re catering to what the network needs. Plus, they’ll produce other programming, other sports that they’re already committed to at certain times and seasons and whatever it might be. It at all times changes. It doesn’t matter to me.”
In January, Bloomberg reported that the UFC is in search of greater than $1 billion a yr for its recent broadcast rights deal, which White addressed by saying, “Sounds good to me” with a smile. With the UFC potentially following within the WWE’s footsteps by moving to Netflix, could it see its pay-per-view model go away?
“We do what works for the network – what do they need to do?” White said. “Do they need to only put it on their air? Do they need to do pay-per-view? Do they need to put it behind a paywall? I don’t know any of those things. Tuesday, the window opens and we start talking to other networks and we’ll get more into that.”
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