Comments Thread For: UFC, ESPN Reach Multi-Year Deal To Stream Events on ESPN+

[Scipio2009]

Interesting

5 years, $150m per year, 15 events on ESPN+, Dana White's new contender series, all related shoulder programming, the digital rights to UFC PPVs, and a dedicated half hour program on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN3 to promo events.

And apparently half of the deal (the best outcome for boxing would be for WWE to stay with NBCUniversal and that FOX continues on with a reduced UFC package, opening the way for PBC to fill in any lost UFC content going forward)

[Scipio2009]

a time line for what? This is facts. Tyson Fury’s next fight will likely be next. Thy already sent a press release out saying they have 6 international fights this year. Khan Lo Greco was the first.

The YouTube show is cool, but Phil LoGreco was a punching bag, and Tyson Fury (with nothing annouced this far out) is likely being lined up to fight his own punching bag.

Horn-Crawford is a stellar fight compared to those two, and then you have Pacquiao-Matthyssee from Axiata Arena, which will hinge on what Pacquiao has left.

Almost no competitive fights, with the content already set for ESPN being worse as Arum focuses on simply developing his fighters his way.

The formal deal hits the one year mark in August; how long do you figure it takes ESPN to extend things out to your 10 years?

[killakali]

The YouTube show is cool, but Phil LoGreco was a punching bag, and Tyson Fury (with nothing annouced this far out) is likely being lined up to fight his own punching bag.

Horn-Crawford is a stellar fight compared to those two, and then you have Pacquiao-Matthyssee from Axiata Arena, which will hinge on what Pacquiao has left.

Almost no competitive fights, with the content already set for ESPN being worse as Arum focuses on simply developing his fighters his way.

The formal deal hits the one year mark in August; how long do you figure it takes ESPN to extend things out to your 10 years?

it will be extended before the year is out. Pac-Matthysse is ESPN ppv and not the app.

The shows on ESPN have been very good. Sure u get a stinker like Zurdos fight in February but Magdaleno-Dogboe, Valdez-Quigg, Ramirez-Imam and Beltran-Moses were excellent fights. Plus the Verdejo Lozada and Hart Nicholson co features were really good.

With Linares-Loma coming up ESPN has put on the best cards the first half of 2018.

Crawford-Horn is a better matchup than Garcia-Rios.

Showtime has had a Good year with Wilder-Ortiz and Broner-Vargas and Stevenson-Jack but Dpence-Peterson, Garcia-Lipinets and Garcia-Rios turned out to be ordinary fights.

And HBO well there isn’t much to say about except super fly was good.

[rwyatt05]

Killa, a few questions for you:

- Do you know what the Eddie Hearn matchup is on Thursday, by chance?

- Any idea what the deal with PBC is? Right now they exist almost exclusively on Showtime. Is that their long-term plan or are they still seeking other television deals?

[Jsmooth9876]

The YouTube show is cool, but Phil LoGreco was a punching bag, and Tyson Fury (with nothing annouced this far out) is likely being lined up to fight his own punching bag.

Horn-Crawford is a stellar fight compared to those two, and then you have Pacquiao-Matthyssee from Axiata Arena, which will hinge on what Pacquiao has left.

Almost no competitive fights, with the content already set for ESPN being worse as Arum focuses on simply developing his fighters his way.

The formal deal hits the one year mark in August; how long do you figure it takes ESPN to extend things out to your 10 years?

Fury vs Shannon Briggs coming soon according to Twitter at least

Hope they're not planning on doing any PED testing for that one.

[bigdunny1]

As long as this doesn't impact ESPN's commitment to boxing I'm fine with it. But if this means less boxing on ESPN in favor of UFC in the coming future that sucks. Have to see how this all plays out Bob Arum just got the ESPN deal is UFC taking away from his dates?

[rwyatt05]

As long as this doesn't impact ESPN's commitment to boxing I'm fine with it. But if this means less boxing on ESPN in favor of UFC in the coming future that sucks. Have to see how this all plays out Bob Arum just got the ESPN deal is UFC taking away from his dates?

No. Top Rank deal is for broadcasting, streaming and content library, ancillary programming, etc.... UFC deal doesn't include broadcasting on cable (only streaming on ESPN+). Top Rank shows on ESPN won't be cut into by this deal at all.

[ShoulderRoll]

Wrong forum. This shouldn't be in the Boxing News section.

Move this crap to the MMA subforum.

[Boxfan83]

So now you gotta pay for fight pass, ESPN +, and PPV

Thats y i stream everything now.

[BennyBlanco]

Bad news for UFC fans and for the UFC business in general.

1. No mention of any events on ESPN itself. So instead of being on a widely available established channel - like Fox or ESPN, like other major sports - UFC is on a streaming service that specializes in second- and third-tier games. Once again, UFC will be used to try to build an unestablished platform, like Spike - except that unlike with Spike, UFC won't be getting the prime priority placement front and center and will instead to relegated to the off-network streaming platform.

2. Sets up another pay wall between MMA fans and UFC content. Adding another pay wall risks alienating fans who are unwilling or unable to spend more money to watch UFC.

3. Perpetuates the problem of UFC oversaturation. UFC events have become generic and indistinguishable from each other. Talent pool is thin, lacking stars. And putting 15 events on ESPN+ does nothing to alleviate oversaturation and even less to build future stars.