Turner Sports Is A Major Player For The Next UFC TV Deal

Little belated in this article, but interesting nonetheless...

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By Dan Hiergesell

The television deal between Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and FOX is nearing its end and the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion may be in the market for another partner.

While FOX has handed UFC what many consider to be a lowball offer of $200 million per year, UFC desperately needs a larger payday if WME-IMG is going to close any ground on its $4.2 billion purchase of the MMA juggernaut last year. Luckily for UFC, a potential merger between AT&T and Time Warner could lead to a bigger piece of the pie.

According to a report by Sports Business Daily's John Ourand, Turner could become a major player in forming a new TV deal with UFC should the proposed merger finalize:

“I know Fox is the clear front-runner to retain this package. But I have an inkling that once the AT&T deal gains approval, Turner’s David Levy will sign a big-time media rights deal that would put the UFC on all AT&T platforms. Imagine UFC fights on truTV, pay-per-view cards on DirecTV, mobile programming on AT&T Wireless, and over-the-top rights on Turner’s planned sports service. A caveat: If the AT&T deal is rejected (or if it takes too long), the UFC will cut a deal with Fox for around $250 million that will see Fox give up shows like “Ultimate Fighter” that UFC will shop elsewhere. Amazon showed early interest in picking up a streaming package, but it ultimately will pass on a UFC deal.”

Considering the UFC’s global reach and consistent growth, a new TV deal is most certainly worth more than $200 million. But the MMA promotion has already began to scare some suitors away with a ridiculous $450 million per year asking price. The common ground between UFC and its next television partner probably lies somewhere in the middle of those two gaudy numbers.

Of course, if UFC can get Conor McGregor to stay around and Floyd Mayweather to join Zuffa Boxing, maybe $450 million isn’t that high of an asking price.

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Very interesting to say the least.  This would be a major coup d'etat for Turner Broadcasting if they could pull the UFC away from FOX, especially since FS1 and FS2 are so dependent on UFC content to sustain their channels.  And while the numbers have steadily dropped over time due to oversaturation and the eventual death of cable, a deal with Turner might be a shot in the arm for the UFC to kick up ratings (especially if they get a less restrictive deal in comparison to the one they had with FOX so they can do something with Amazon Prime or Netflix).

Thoughts?

I've heard rumors about the UFC going to ESPN/ABC.

I see Disney creating a brand new channel to feature the UFC and other less mainstream sports.

It will be called ESPN8: The Ocho.

Disney is very strong so why not?

@Rappinpap

Because ESPN's ratings are in the toilet and they are more interested in wasting hundreds of millions on Monday Night Football games that are bleeding the company dry of money than the UFC.  Plus I would rather the UFC be kept as far away from Disney as possible since anything that they touch in recent times has tanked into oblivion like Star Wars and Marvel.

@MassaBruce

It's not that. It's the SJW baggage that comes with Disney nowadays.  Everything that Disney has its monolithic tendrils in has some form of Social Justice BS in it.  Not only that, Disney has become a monopoly in the world of entertainment that should be hit with as big of an anti trust lawsuit that TimeWarner and AT&T are getting hit with over this merger.  I mean for god's sake, they are attempting to buy the majority of 21st Century Fox's assets to go along with their acquisitions of Marvel and LucasFilm.  I want the UFC to be kept as far away from anything associated with Disney as possible.

* Edited at 01.16.2018, 7:50 PM ET *