UFC x ESPN…what the fook?
Earlier this year, ESPN entered a new pact with UFC to hold exclusive events on their newly-launched +app. With the channel losing revenue on live viewers, Disney felt that getting preliminary live events for pay-per-views, as well as Dana White’s new UFC Tuesday Night Contender series would be enough to secure a steady audience. Under the new deal, ESPN pays UFC $300 million per year, over five years for 30 fights – totaling $1.5 billion dollars.
The mixed martial arts expansion on the Disney-owned sports channel is set to kick in early 2019. However, while ESPN is leading people on that they were the highest bidder, FOX simply wasn’t willing to pay that much for a declining promotion.
Just last week, FOX inked a $1 billion deal with Vince McMahon’s WWE. The current plan is to bring their Smackdown Live series to Fridays on the network channel. It’s also rumored that NXT and 205 Live could air on FS1 and FS2, following expected success on the main network.
So, FOX felt more security with averaging 3 million viewers for Smackdown, with the possibility of more on a larger platform. In comparison to UFC, who’s still looking for a new household name with the departure of Ronda Rousey to WWE, Jon Jones still battling with personal issues.
Along with those names, Conor McGregor is also questioning his worth in the company and contemplating a boxing career; after an insane pay day with Floyd Mayweather a few months ago.
Considering Dana White is also working privately to become a boxing promoter, ESPN could be the only major network that could draw interesting back into the product. For ESPN, they get a chance to build something with name value on their newly-launched app, as well as become promoters of themselves – to potentially become buyers in the company down the line, so we’ve been told.
Let us know in the comments what you think of FOX with WWE, as well as ESPN and UFC.