Major Shift of Networks WWE & UFC

Big news and big numbers in the Fighting Entertainment World!

WWE Smackdown: NBC Universal -> FOX

Just 2 days ago, it was revealed that FOX and WWE are close to a 5 year, $1 billion deal for the WWE Smackdown live shows. Fox would pay WWE $205 million per year over the course of 5 years and is expected to begin on October 2019. This is 3 times more than what NBC Universal currently is paying!

Smackdown is currently running as a weekly 2-hour live show on the USA Network. WWE's RAW will remain with the NBC Universal’s USA Network.

UFC: FOX -> ESPN

Today, the news came out that the UFC is moving from FOX to ESPN in order to broadcast 30 events per year starting 2019. On May 8th, it was already announced that ESPN+ was picking up UFC's Digital Package including 15 UFC on ESPN+ Fight Nights. They were ready to pay $150 million per year for that. Today it was reported that ESPN added additional events to its agreement which now values the deal at $1.5 billion over the course of 5 years! Amazon Prime already announced that it will carry the UFC PPV events.

FOX has been hosting the UFC for the last 7 years and was also bidding to remain the UFC's main media partner. They offered the UFC $175-200 million per year but ESPN clearly outbid them. Once it was announced that FOX was going to bed with Smackdown, it was clear that they wouldn't open their wallet for the UFC anymore.

It is great to see the number going up significantly. This indicates that the Fighting Entertaining landscape is still growing at a rapid pace. Glad to be part of it and it will be interesting to see where we will be in 5 years from now..