UFC PPV sales plummet under ESPN banner; MMA community blames over-priced events

ESPN opting out of putting UFC on cable Pay-per-view for low output, while UFC brass sees PPV buy price rise.

UFC PPV sales plummet under ESPN banner; MMA community blames over-priced events

ESPN and UFC on the last leg till new broadcasts rights deal (Source: IMAGO/X)

Things are taking a freefall in the goodwill between ESPN and UFC as their exclusive negotiating window for a new broadcast deal in 2026 closes. The UFC signed a deal with the leading sports broadcaster some years back. During the 2018 frame, at a staggering $800 million a year, all seemed okay. But turns out, UFC and ESPN were in for a bad marriage. The child of neglect is the PPV sales and windfalls.

Erich Richter of the New York Post has published an article inkling how the UFC brass were “furious” about UFC 313 PPV marred by technical difficulties. On a ‘NY Post Sports’ Podcast sitdown, he gave more details about ESPN “sh*tting the bed” with this PPV offering hobble and what it means about this strained relation.

YouTube video

ESPN has pretty much stopped putting UFC programming on cable TV, whether that be ABC, ESPN2, ESPN, …If ESPN isn’t putting UFC on their cable broadcast, I feel like that is indicative of how they feel about each other right now. The UFC gets 300,000 pay-per-view buys as a ‘buy in’ from ESPN — There’s no way that ESPN is getting 300,000 pay-per-view buys out out of every pay-per-view, …So this has been a bad marriage in the last couple years for both parties.

Erich Richter said in a latest podcast episode

The UFC’s contract with ESPN runs until 2025 and will be telecast on a variety of platforms, including ESPN 2 and EPSN+ until then. However, PPV prices have risen from $59.99 at launch to the current blistering $79.99 buy cost in 2023! Piracy has thus been an easier leeway around ESPN’s control costs for pay-per-views.

FS Video

So said TKO Group Holdings president Mark Shapiro during a recent financial roll call. There is no telling how the future will go. But right now, this seems like a slow-roll of a bad breakup. There are other concerns as well.

The parent-split: Till PPV cost controls and bad cards do them apart

Shapiro envisioned UFC PPVs for fans, for no extra charge if signed up to the flagship program. As it is, ESPN+ has had tough streaming issues over the last few years. Card orders on ESPN+, Hulu SVOD, ESPN & ESPN Deportes have also turned out to be middling PPV setups.

Bad card and more pricing means ESPN in the final league of a strained relation
Bad card and more pricing means ESPN in the final league of a strained relation (Source: X)

Per Richter, the UFC is angry about ESPN’s lack of technology. Including media packages, media trucks, dedicated telecasting framework, and so on for more fluid streaming. ESPN has been angry about the lack of the pay-per-view buys it was expecting. They are not happy with how the UFC has been setting it all up.

Case in point — as some would put it — meager WMMA fights on main slot when there are others in the pecking order. UFC Vegas 104 (UFC Fight Night 254) was the first event in the company’s history to feature consecutive first-round KOs in women’s competition! Both happened during the prelim (ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET) card, making it mildly more interesting than most.

It’s not uncommon to see top-heavy main cards while the lower order goes flat! To cap it off, sometimes, big names are in the prelim slots. Former UFC 135-pound champ Aljamain Sterling has had quite a reign but found himself on the prelims section twice! Veteran Stephen Thompson voiced against a watered-down prelim spot during UFC 307. All in all, it does not bode well with streaming issues (ESPN+) and bad placement (UFC).

Is there a way forward for UFC-ESPN?

The martial arts promotion drove subscribers to ESPN+, home base in the US for nearly every UFC event and pay-per-view (PPV). The litigation was given the ESPN rub, with plenty of promotional pushes across the company’s network.

ESPN-UFC split could mean a new global name in the foray
ESPN-UFC split could mean a new global name in the foray (Source: X/nypost.com)

However, it seems like UFC might entirely opt out, for another option. Media experts have billed Netflix as the new home, with better management. Sister promotion WWE, that shares TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO) as their origin point, recently scribed a $5 billion deal and has been a success. UFC might just be the same.

Related: “Sh**y way to put UFC on ESPN!” Renato Moicano puts Dana White and company on BLAST for putting fights in UFC Apex