Dana White and the UFC are one show into the Paramount era and there are already questions about how the broadcasts are being presented.
While UFC 324—the promotion’s debut event on the Paramount+ streaming service—mostly went off without a hitch and was capped off by an entertaining standup scrap between fan favorites Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett, one complaint about that made the rounds on social media was the abundance of ads that played during the show. Making matters worse, the ads often ran over the fighters’ walkouts and between rounds when fans would typically get to hear corner chatter.
Under their new $7.7 billion broadcast partnership, the UFC has abandoned its traditional pay-per-view model in favor of a subscription model, and White told reporters at the evening’s post-fight press conference that more ads is just the cost of business.
“I haven’t seen it yet and all of this is a work in progress,” White said. “It’s $8.99. You’re not paying f*cking, however much more, these guys have got to make some money too.”
Saturday’s show was the first of the UFC-Paramount partnership that is set to run until 2032, so there is plenty of time for both sides to work out the kinks. The promotion already has a chance to make adjustments next weekend, with UFC 325 going down Saturday in Sydney, Australia.
Asked if the format of the programming was primarily decided by Paramount, White acknowledged that the media conglomerate paid for the product, so it calls the shots.
“Well, that is a fact, let’s start there,” White said. “But these guys are incredible to work with already, so we’ll figure it out.”
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