UFC 323 marked the final pay-per-view for the promotion as the company’s broadcast deal with ESPN comes to an end and a new partnership with Paramount begins in 2026.
Under terms of the seven year, $7.7 billion deal, every UFC event now airs on the Paramount+ streaming service at no additional cost to subscribers. That means there’s no additional paywall to watch the big numbered events, which kick off with UFC 324 in January with Justin Gaethje facing Paddy Pimblett in an interim lightweight title fight as well as Kayla Harrison clashing with Amanda Nunes for the bantamweight title.
While prices have changed — and notably increased over the past couple of decades — the UFC won’t have any pay-per-view events moving forward and White believes that’s going to make the sport grow even bigger over the next seven years.
“[This is] huge and the amount of marketing that these guys are going to do for the UFC on their platform, it’s impossible for the sport not to get even bigger,” White said at the UFC 323 post-fight press conference. “It was $1,200 or $1,300 bucks to be a fan this year. It’s going to be $120 next year or something like that for the entire year.
“We have huge fights coming up, the White House fight alone will be madness.”
Now Paramount already announced plans to increase prices for the streaming service in 2026, although the exact amount hasn’t been revealed. Paramount+ currently runs $12.99 without ads or $7.99 per month with ads. But that’s still a far cry from paying a minimum of $11.99 per month for ESPN+ plus an additional $79.99 for each pay-per-view.
During negotiations, TKO Group Holdings executives admitted there was a good chance the UFC’s new broadcast deal could get split up among multiple partners. In fact, the UFC was deep in talks with Netflix with the streaming giant interested in taking all of the major numbered events but not the UFC Fight Night cards that also run throughout the year.
In the end, Paramount upped the ante by taking the entire package for $7.7 billion over the next seven years.
“The answer is we’re really lucky Paramount+ wanted everything,” White admitted. “These guys have already been incredible partners. Their team is all fired up, my team is all fired up and we’re really looking forward to this.”
While the new broadcast deal doesn’t technically begin until January, Paramount has already been advertising the UFC heavily on its networks including numerous commercials during NFL games that air on CBS and Paramount+.
In fact, White announced the first UFC card headed to Paramount in January during the Thanksgiving game on CBS between the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys, which averaged 57.2 million viewers — the most watched regular season game of all time.
That can only help the UFC gain that much more exposure during the life of this broadcast deal.
“What I’m looking at now just the spend that they’re doing,” White said about Paramount. “If you guys were home on Thanksgiving watching the games, it was everywhere and like 55 million people watched. As that starts to happen over several years, it’s just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.”
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