Paramount+ has secured the exclusive live streaming rights to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in Latin America and Australia for seven years from 2026, building on its recent agreement with the promotion in the US.
Key details:
- All 13 numbered UFC events and 30 Fight Nights will be streamed live in Latin America, including Brazil
- Australian viewers will be able to watch all 30 Fight Nights and preliminaries for numbered events
- UFC content will be included in a standard Paramount+ subscription
- Paramount+ won the rights to all major events in the US earlier this year
- UFC was advised by IMG through their shared parent company in TKO Holdings
Context:
This deal allows Paramount+ to expand its presence in two key MMA markets, building on portfolios that largely comprise of soccer rights, whilst demonstrating to rights holders the potential for multi-territory broadcast partnerships. These capabilities would be enhanced should speculation regarding a merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which operates TNT Sports and Eurosport, come to fruition.
The expansion also cements the growing relationship between UFC and Paramount following their US$7.7 billion deal in the US. The agreement took many by surprise with ESPN and Netflix, the latter of which was considering a global deal, considered to be the front runners.
Comment:
“The partnership with Paramount has already been incredible and it just keeps getting bigger and better,” said UFC chief executive Dana White. “They are now taking on new territories like Latin America and Australia and this thing is just going to continue to grow. It just shows you how aggressive they are with this business, and I love it. I can’t wait to continue working together and building the next generation of talent all over the world.”
“Delivering premium UFC programming to audiences on a global scale remains a top priority for Paramount,” said Cindy Holland, chair of DTC, Paramount. “We are thrilled to expand upon the historic offering of UFC content for Paramount+ subscribers across all plans to more passionate and engaged fans around the world.”
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