LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK—In a notable example of sports rights shifting to streaming, Paramount and TKO Group Holdings have struck a seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights agreement in which Paramount properties will become the exclusive U.S. home of all UFC events.

Starting in 2026, direct-to-consumer platform Paramount+ will become the exclusive streaming home of UFC's full slate of 13 marquee numbered events and 30 “Fight Nights,” with select numbered events to be simulcast on CBS.

The multibillion-dollar deal is the first major programming investment made by Paramount since the merger closed. It also marks a notable shift in the distribution strategy of TKO's UFC from cable and PPV to streaming. While UFC’s current agreement with ESPN had a major PPV element, the new deal will make its premium events available at no additional cost to U.S. Paramount+ subscriibers.

Paramount and TKO said this shift in distribution strategy should unlock greater accessibility and discoverability for sports fans and drive further engagement and subscriber growth for Paramount+.

Paramount also reported that it intends to explore UFC rights outside the U.S. as they become available in the future.

“I couldn't be more excited to join forces with Dana, Ari, and Mark. Rarely do opportunities arise to partner on an exclusive basis with a global sports powerhouse like UFC—an organization with extraordinary global recognition, scale, and cultural impact,’ Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison said. “Paramount’s advantage lies in the expansive reach of our linear and streaming platforms. Live sports continue to be a cornerstone of our broader strategy—driving engagement, subscriber growth, and long-term loyalty, and the addition of UFC’s year-round must-watch events to our platforms is a major win. We look forward to delivering this premium content to millions of fans in the U.S., and potentially beyond."

“This is a milestone moment and landmark deal for UFC, solidifying its position as a preeminent global sports asset,” said Ariel Emanuel, executive chair and CEO, TKO. “Our decade-long journey with UFC has been defined by continuous growth and expansion, and this agreement is an important realization of our strategy. We believe wholeheartedly in David’s vision and look forward to being in business with a company that will prioritize technology as a means to enhance storytelling and the overall viewing experience.”

Said TKO President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro: “Paramount is a platinum partner with significant reach. Our new agreement unlocks powerful opportunities at TKO for years to come—meaningful economics for investors; expanded premium inventory for global brand partners; and deeper engagement for UFC's passionate fanbase. Just as importantly, our athletes will love this new stage.“

UFC events take place year-round, with approximately 43 live events delivering more than 350 hours of content.

According to TKO, UFC reaches a base of roughly 100 million highly engaged U.S. fans across linear, digital and social platforms, with a global reach of some 950 million broadcast and digital households in more than 210 countries and territories speaking 50 languages. It boasts a roster of about 600 of the world's best male and female mixed martial artists from 75 countries, the company said.

BURBANK, Calif.—PSSI has announced that it demonstrated a significant expansion of its remote production capabilities last month with the production of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s "The Road to UFC 2" from Shanghai, China. 

The live production in Las Vegas in May involved 24 camera feeds that were acquired from Shanghai via remote integration through transmission services provided by PSSI Global Services, a live event management, transmission, production and connectivity provider serving clients across the globe. 

PSSI reported that the scale and distance of the event represented a significant expansion of the remote production model and that the successful event demonstrated that PSSI can help clients of any size expand globally without compromising production quality and reliability. 

The REMI production model enabled UFC and its production partner, ConCom, to reduce its production footprint by providing an alternative to traveling overseas with an entire production team.

"A college football game as a 10-channel REMI is now part of the weekly repertoire in the US, but we are pushing the boundaries with scale and distance,” said Garrett Hunt, who leads PSSI’s project management team. “UFC is the perfect partner for this initial venture because their global reach is so expansive. Our work in Shanghai and Vegas shows there’s no corner of the world we can’t reach to produce a world-class show with fewer boots on the ground than ever before.”

PSSI sent its newly acquired Appear media processing and delivery equipment and two senior engineers to Shanghai to facilitate this broadcast. Appear's X Platform enabled high-density HEVC encoding/decoding for the event, converting 24 HD camera signals and 8 return feeds into high-quality HEVC, low-latency transport signals. 

In addition, PSSI turned to Telstra to provide one gigabyte of data for the event via their Special Events Network, as well as an IT interface for remote engineering. PSSI also engaged Nextologies to design multiple payload data tunnels for comms, scoring, and camera tallies between the Shanghai Media Group facility and UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

“What we were able to accomplish in Shanghai could be tailored to any company with an interest in efficient international REMI productions,” said Tracy Michaels, director of project engineering, who architected this solution alongside PSSI’s partners at Appear, Telstra, and Nextologies. “What sets this REMI apart is the rapid-deploy set/shoot/strike model that can be scaled up or down for any event around the world.”

For more information about PSSI, visit http://www.pssiglobal.com. 

LAS VEGAS—Nextologies has established a co-location and western U.S. REMI and network operations center with the UFC APEX production facility here and will provide live demos of the new REMI solution at the 2023 NAB Show, April 15-19. 

Productions coming to the Las Vegas area will have the opportunity to use the facility, which: 

• Leverages Nextologies’ hardware within UFC APEX to transmit signals with ultra-low latency and produce multi-camera live events from a centralized studio. No bonded cellular or legacy transmission strategies are required. 
• Minimizes staff needed and simplifies onsite technology and infrastructure requirements.
• Delivers signals into APEX via Nextologies’ broadcast-quality live video delivery platform.
• Leverages co-located UFC APEX and Nextologies facilities for audio mixing, video switching, graphics, SCTE marker insertion, frame rate conversion, transcoding, encoding, and streaming. 
• Distributes programming via private fiber or public/private internet using Nextologies’ existing worldwide network of more than 2,000 delivery points. Signals can be delivered in any format required by any taker, opening up new revenue-generating opportunities. 

“The collaboration with Nextologies and 10TX [a Nextologies brand] provides UFC an in-house technology partner to assist in developing new solutions that position UFC Apex as a premier event and broadcast facility in Las Vegas,” said Tim O’Toole, senior vice president of event production at UFC. “Offering our production resources and talent to outside organizations has been a goal of UFC APEX since its inception.” 

The Nextologies 10TX brand leverages the company’s XAAS (everything as a service) hardware, software and hybrid cloud infrastructure.

“The technology backbone of this new REMI solution has proven reliable and effective over the last decade for live TV, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to launch 10TX and partner with UFC to extend a game-changing solution to even more live productions,” said Nextologies CEO Sasha ZIvanovic.

See Nextologies in NAB Show booth W2959 in the West Hall of the LVCC.

More information is available on the company’s website.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. & STAMFORD, Conn.—Endeavor Group Holdings, the owner of UFC, and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to merge UFC and WWE to form a new, publicly listed global sports and entertainment company that the companies say will be valued at more than $21 billion. 

When the deal closes, Endeavor will hold a 51% controlling interest in the new company and existing WWE shareholders will hold a 49% interest in the new company.

On a combined 2022 fiscal year-end basis, UFC and WWE achieved revenue of $2.4 billion and a 10% annual revenue growth rate since 2019, the companies said. 

The transaction values UFC at $12.1 billion and WWE at $9.3 billion. 

“This is a rare opportunity to create a global live sports and entertainment pureplay built for where the industry is headed,” said Ariel Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor. “For decades, Vince and his team have demonstrated an incredible track record of innovation and shareholder value creation, and we are confident that Endeavor can deliver significant additional value for shareholders by bringing UFC and WWE together.”

“Given the incredible work that Ari and Endeavor have done to grow the UFC brand – nearly doubling its revenue over the past seven years – and the immense success we’ve already had in partnering with their team on a number of ventures, I believe that this is without a doubt the best outcome for our shareholders and other stakeholders,” said Vincent K. McMahon, executive chairman of WWE.

“Together, we will be a $21+ billion live sports and entertainment powerhouse with a collective fanbase of more than a billion people and an exciting growth opportunity,” McMahon continued. “The new company will be well positioned to maximize the value of our combined media rights, enhance sponsorship monetization, develop new forms of content and pursue other strategic mergers and acquisitions to further bolster our strong stable of brands. I, along with the current WWE management team, look forward to working closely with Ari and the Endeavor and UFC teams to take the businesses to the next level.”

The new company will be led by Emanuel as CEO, who will also continue in his role as CEO of Endeavor, McMahon (executive chairman of the Board) and Mark Shapiro, who will be president and chief operating officer of both Endeavor and the new company. Dana White will continue in his role as president of UFC and Nick Khan will serve as president of WWE. The Board of Directors will consist of 11 members who will be appointed at a later date, six of whom will be appointed by Endeavor and five of whom by WWE.

BURBANK, CALIF.—Fans got to enter the octagon in a whole new way during the broadcast of the recent UFC 200 event with help from Reality Check Systems. As part of a three-year deal with UFC, RCS provided custom graphics hardware integration and services for the DirecTV Pay-Per-View broadcast for the fight card at UFC 200, providing the sport’s first 4K fight, according to RCS’ press release.

RCS designed a workflow that allowed UFC to use its existing 2K graphics package and up-res it to 4K. The system was made up of two Vizrt graphics engines linked to a single main control PC running Vizrt Trio software, an NVIDIA M4000 graphics card and a Matrox XMIO3 video card, all of which were designed to integrate with a switcher. Both the control computer and software were updated by RCS so the Trio operator could switch between the two channels as needed.

After a successful test during UFC 199, RCS integrated two 4K solutions into the PPV 4K truck; they also integrated four RCS HD Bullet graphics workstations, with two in the PPV/Fox HD truck and two in the Fox studio truck for pre- and post-fight coverage. UFC also made use of a 2K graphics package that RCS built out in 2015. RCS also provided onsite support and is expected to provide updates to the system and graphics package over the length of its three-year deal.

UFC 200 took place in Las Vegas on July 9.