Why Paramount Nabbed UFC Rights While ESPN and Fox Are Bundling Up

The complicated sports streaming landscape just upped its game.

Today, Paramount, which just closed its merger with Skydance Media, entered the octagon with TKO Group Holdings in a deal that makes Paramount the exclusive home of all UFC events in the U.S. The partnership, which begins in 2026, has an average annual value of $1.1 billion (over seven years, that’s around $7.7 billion). Paramount will also “move away” from UFC’s pay-per-view model, making the events available for no additional cost to Paramount+ subscribers.

The deal also means that ESPN is out of the UFC game, with its partnership with UFC set to expire at the end of 2025. However, ESPN has also been busy with sports rights, recently announcing new partnerships with WWE and the NFL for NFL Network assets.

Plus—not to be outdone—on the same day Paramount announced its UFC deal, ESPN announced its upcoming streamer, named ESPN, was bundling with Fox’s upcoming streamer, Fox One, letting consumers purchase both streamers for $39.99 per month, starting Oct. 2.

So why is this all happening?

According to Mike Proulx, vp, research director, Forrester, the next battle for streaming is for sports rights as publishers seek advertiser-friendly and highly-engaging programming: “It’s sort of a land grab right now,” he recently told ADWEEK.

But in a complex streaming environment, there’s more than one way to come out on top.

Locking up the right sports rights

Jeremy Goldman, senior director, eMarketer, called Paramount’s deal a “win-win” for Skydance and the UFC.

“For Skydance, it secures a ‘unicorn’ rights package in an era when top-tier sports deals are scarce, with Formula 1 likely bound for Apple and MLB locked until 2028,” Goldman said. “Year-round fights offer a churn-resistant subscription hook that NFL, NBA, and MLB can’t match, while CBS simulcasts keep linear relevant with younger viewers.”

The deal also brings a significant amount of new inventory to Paramount, with approximately 43 live UFC events annually, delivering more than 350 hours of live event content. It’s a benefit ESPN is also getting with its new WWE deal.

Ahead of its streamer launch, ESPN and WWE reached a five-year and more than $1.6 billion agreement that gives it exclusive rights to many WWE events, including WrestleMania and SummerSlam.

Kevin Krim, president and CEO of measurement and analytics company EDO, noted the deal brings nearly yearlong programming and significant ad inventory to ESPN. And though Paramount is doing away with the pay-per-view model for UFC, ESPN could also offer a different strategy to WWE and new ad opportunities.

“They’ll attract millions of people to every program, but they also have this idea of the special events, the premium, playoff-type events,” Krim told ADWEEK about ESPN’s WWE rights. “And while those have always been subscription-only and pay-per-view, and therefore no real advertising except maybe some product placement integrations, there’s an opportunity for real innovation there. They can control ad breaks all they want. It’s an open field.”

Hedging your bets with bundles

Amid all the disruption in the sports streaming landscape, with rights moving from one publisher to another, companies and leagues are taking calculated risks.

For instance, though ESPN is letting its deal with Major League Baseball expire at the end of the 2025 season, Fox has MLB through 2028, and the new ESPN and Fox One bundle means viewers seeking anything from NFL to MLB—or Fox’s upcoming coverage of the FIFA World Cup—could find that programming across both companies within one streaming plan.

Meanwhile, Peacock reportedly had the opportunity to match ESPN’s bid for WWE, but the streamer, which is adding NBA in the fall through NBCUniversal’s upcoming 11-year deal with the league, chose to refrain. However, there’s always the opportunity that Peacock gets in on a new sports bundle partnership, as the streamer has been open to bundles previously.

Amid rising sports rights costs, experts say bundling is an attractive option for streamers and consumers alike.

“The number of streaming platforms is creating a challenge for consumers in the number of services that they can afford,” said John Fortunato, a professor of communications and media management at Fordham Gabelli School of Business. “Bundling services is one of the ways that platforms are using to navigate this economic environment.”

Overall, the news of Paramount’s UFC deal, as well as Fox One and ESPN teaming up, shows the impact of live programming, which Krim called the “most valuable thing” in today’s streaming landscape.

“Anybody who’s got a live franchise, whether it’s WWE, all these various sports leagues, or award shows—as long as they’re doing a good job of delivering something that there are fans for—they’re going to get paid in this media environment,” Krim said. “It is what everyone needs to stay relevant.”