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News PPV further collapses

A business model depending on once a generation athletes every decade isn't sustainable, because you get generations with champs like Jamhal Hill.

$0 is overpriced end of the day. They were barely making it with $50 PPVs, increasing the price 40% will obviously price out a great chunk of people.

How much money do you have to be to be a "true" UFC mar-I mean fan?
UFC PPV events (typically 12 per year) and Fight Nights in the U.S., you need an ESPN+ subscription ($119.99/year) and must purchase each PPV event ($79.99 each). Total yearly cost: approximately $1,079.87 (12 PPVs x $79.99 + $119.99).

The sport isn't in a state where anyone looks at it and thinks "Yes, $1000 a year is fair for this subscription."
You have to keep in mind that UFC has multiple revenue streams. PPV is not the only one and has decreased in importance financially for them as they increased the amount of fight night events streaming on ESPN plus. Also PPVs are obviously not stable but never were to begin with. Every ppv is a bit of a gamble even with the Espn guarantees. Thats why UFC has multiple solid revenue streams to keep making more cash and growing.

In terms of the current health of the sport overall. MMA is okay but its not as strong as needs to be to keep expanding. UFC is going to need that extra money from their new deal to push internationally. They been slacking in Europe and Asia is forgotten about. Rizin interestingly is hitting homerun after homerun in Japan. They should try to expand
more too and do All Asia tournaments with fighters from multiple countries. I bet they would do better tournaments than pfl.
 
PPV has been dead for me for years. Way overpriced and the required shitty ESPN+ subscription.

You want me to pay money, so I can pay MORE money for your product.
What kind of nonsense is that.
 
Nothing like corporations taking over

Always leads to a proper servicing of the art.

It's like those food carts that used to be bomb until some giga food company buys them out, they make a bunch more and quality goes to shit, the passion goes to shit and it becomes soulless.

They're buying up and doing it to everything these days. Everything we once lived is slowly becoming controlled by these vultures

Bingo

Anything that ever became great because it was built with love for the game gets swallowed up by some big box soulless corporation and diarrhea'd out in a quantity over quality model.
 
PPV model is outdated. Especially when you need to purchase a subscription to be able to purchase a $80 PPV with 2 decent fights and the rest of a shit card.
 
WBD is the one in a mess imo, they are already splitting up after just doing a recent merger with each other.

Like I said WBD has a lot of debt, but they also had enormous success at the box office this year and a massive turnaround in YoY profit. Setting all that aside, industry insiders are credibly reporting WBD entered the chat and are in serious talk with the UFC. The opposite is true for Netflix.

Think Paramount will be okay with new owners. They have deep pockets and seem shrewd. I think they are willing to spend for some UFC fights but very limited to a few events. Streamers are desperate these days for subscribers. So having UFC here and there on your service is a good thing.

Paramount+ is a stinker and bleeds money. Ellison's father is a Trumper and one of the richest humans on earth, so if they really want to spend money on {anything} they can. Doing it is another thing and I would have a hard time seeing this fit in with the team and changes they've announced.


Live content is on every streamers wish list wether they admit it or not

Sarandos + Belal have explicitly said they want live content to be big events. Water-cooler events, things that people talk about and make a big spike in the public consciousness. The UFC hasn't fit that mold in a decade.

Of course could be public negotiating, but this is also what he's told investors.


As much as people want ppv model to be gone its not going to happen. Its too lucrative when done right. At most they are just going to cut back on ppv events and better quality control.

I agree its going to stay, but not because its too lucrative. Its because Netflix has a 18 billion+ content budget in 2025, which will be higher in the billions for 2026, 2027, 2028 etc, and they simply don't want the UFC product. They can easily afford it, but don't see the value.

ESPN is losing its pants on a deal the UFC wants. If it goes to ESPN or Amazon, it will be subsidized product. PPV buys are through the floor, and its been reported just this week that ESPN payments to UFC are down YoY for Q2 because they aren't even crossing 300k, 500k triggers.


Apple realized this and has MLS, MLB and Formula 1 soon. Amazon I think recently got a few NBA games and a few NFl games but its not enough. (nobody gives a shit about one fc on prime doesnt count)

Apple is also subsidizing their streaming platform in the billions, they lose money every quarter/year... however its one of the most successful and capitalized companies on earth and they can afford to lose money.

This whole thing is unpredictable and rumors are not reliable so who knows what will happen. Either way expect to be paying way more for UFC next year lol.

Haha very true. One thing I'll say, every deal has leaked in advance, so will this one. Until a world exists without assistants who are egregiously underpaid, that will be the way of things.
 
Revenue is quality control. Nobody buying shit cards = making UFC great again
The problem is the largest revenue doesn't come from the people watching it. That's when UFC really stopped trying to sell PPVs.

What a horrendous model it has been

Hopefully Netflix keeps them on a tight leash of quality control if they get the deal.
I hope it's someone new, anyone but ESPN again. They are a braindead company. At least Netflix knows when to cancel shows.
 
I think they'll stay with ESPN and their ppvs will move to that new service that THE WWE shows are going. Still 30 a month is too much.
 
I wonder what PPV numbers Conor would bring in the modern era.
 
Only way PPV will continue to exist is if they have 4 a year, every fight is a title fight, and they completely eliminate piracy.

It’s good as dead.
 
Only way PPV will continue to exist is if they have 4 a year, every fight is a title fight, and they completely eliminate piracy.

It’s good as dead.


It would be nice if this were true, but there are not a lot of signals to indicate it. Early 2025 it was hopeful Netflix was going to make a major bid for the numbered events, but that has broadly been refuted now for months.

If Amazon or ESPN (their new OTT platform, not ESPN+) win the media rights, they will all but surely be doing PPV events monthly. In fact, the pay gate will be higher in either case compared with ESPN+ now.
 
I never know the degree of truth I am hearing when public or company figures make statements.

If what I'm hearing is true in that there is serious decline in UFC pay-per-view sales, or UFC products in general, I think they will have a hard time convincing a new suitor to pay them the kind of top dollar that ESPN has paid them; I think the deal will be structured differently. ESPN surely set up that deal anticipating growth by the UFC, not this bottoming out of the PPVs.

I tend to doubt in the current economy that there will be a lot of companies that will be willing to take a leap of faith that the UFC will be able to turn these bad commercial fortunes around in a big way.

The UFC will get paid closer to what they are currently worth in the next deal.
 
Note: Netflix will spend 18 billion on content in 2026. They could easily afford the UFC. They just don't want it.
1B out of 18B? 5% of Netflix viewers don't want to watch UFC. Maybe 1%--or less
 
It would be nice if this were true, but there are not a lot of signals to indicate it. Early 2025 it was hopeful Netflix was going to make a major bid for the numbered events, but that has broadly been refuted now for months.

If Amazon or ESPN (their new OTT platform, not ESPN+) win the media rights, they will all but surely be doing PPV events monthly. In fact, the pay gate will be higher in either case compared with ESPN+ now.

Ya, sadly PPV buys will likely continue to decline.

Amazon winning the rights will be a minor step up and at least slow the decline, as I imagine an Amazon Prime membership will allow for the purchase of a PPV. Amazon Prime is already owned by a ton of people and offers great value (free Amazon shipping and access to PrimeTV), so not only will there be more people with existing memberships that will have easy access to UFC PPV, there will be also more people willing to purchase an Amazon Prime subscription in order to access a UFC PPV.

Whereas now, in order to buy a PPV, new customers would need to pay for an ESPN+ membership that they probably don’t want.

I encountered this personally.. last year I wanted to watch a PPV with family and figured, surely, I could purchase a standalone PPV through my provider like the good old days. Nope.. in addition to the $79 dollar PPV cost, I also needed to purchase an ESPN+ membership that I would never use for a minimum $12/month (and the new ESPN OTT platform will be ~$30 a month), for a total of nearly $100 dollars for a single night of UFC.

In the end I pirated it and hooked up my laptop to an HDMI and my family enjoyed the card for free. Thanks Dana.
 
Literally NOTHING is worth the PPV rates currently.

Even when Nina does a call girl promo for the Canelo fight, etc.

I think I paid for PPV once when GSP fought years ago.

Soo many sites offer these things for free, and are easily accessible, save your money.
 
The problem is the largest revenue doesn't come from the people watching it. That's when UFC really stopped trying to sell PPVs.
As I understand it, UFC is guaranteed revenue from the first 300K buy and ESPN keeps everything over that. If they can't even average 300K because no one is buying crap cards, something has to change--either the price goes down or the quality goes up
 
As I understand it, UFC is guaranteed revenue from the first 300K buy and ESPN keeps everything over that. If they can't even average 300K because no one is buying crap cards, something has to change--either the price goes down or the quality goes up
Is that really true? If yes, then ESPN got a terrible deal.
 
1B out of 18B? 5% of Netflix viewers don't want to watch UFC. Maybe 1%--or less

18B was the content budget in 2025, and they've indicated it will be more next year and beyond. So call it e.g. 20B next year

Either way, the point is they could easily afford it, Netflix simply doesn't see the value.
 
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