Dana White looks forward after final UFC pay-per-view event

UFC CEO Dana White isn’t one to get emotional about something like the conclusion of a media deal.

But he did use the occasion of Saturday’s UFC 323 event, the last as part of an ESPN contract that expires at the end of the year, to reflect on his quarter-century in charge of a company that went from pariah to juggernaut.

“It’s been great,” White said. “Every partner we’ve had was who we were supposed to have along the way, and ESPN definitely helped take us to a new level. The leader in sports and all that.

“If you think about when we started, we had to buy our way onto Spike TV, and we couldn’t get covered by ESPN. So to finally do an ESPN deal and now leaving it being very positive about it and talking about what a great experience it was, it’s great.”

UFC live cards, including premium events, will stream on Paramount+ starting in January. It’s the latest evolution for an organization that was banned in many states when White and his partners took over in 2001.

The vision included shopping an idea for a reality show, which the UFC decided to pay Spike TV to air. That helped in a push for more mainstream acceptance and a deal to air live events on Fox and its related cable entities in 2011. Disney and ESPN entered the mix in 2018.

Each move has served to grow the brand even more, and White, who revealed he signed a five-year extension to continue running the UFC, expects the new seven-year, $7.7 billion deal to do the same.

No more PPV

Through it all, the pay-per-view events were a major driver of revenue. Now, that is set to change, as the premium shows will be included for Paramount+ subscribers in addition to events that will air on CBS.

White believes that will open the sport up to more people.

“This is huge, and the amount of marketing that these guys are going to do for the UFC on their platform, it’s impossible for the sport not to get even bigger,” he said. “It was $1,200 or $1,300 to be a fan this year. It’s going to be $120 next year or something like that for the entire year.”

That will include a card that is expected to take place at the White House, which could be the most-watched event in the company’s history.

What will it cost?

Paramount+ without ads costs $12.99 per month and $7.99 without ads, though the company has announced plans to increase those rates.

The service will also carry ancillary programming such as “The Ultimate Fighter” and “Dana White’s Contender Series.” There had been discussions of separating the programming and doing different deals with different streaming services, but it all ended up on CBS’ platform.

“The answer is we’re really lucky Paramount+ wanted everything,” White said. “These guys have already been incredible partners. Their team is all fired up, my team is all fired up, and we’re really looking forward to this.

“What I’m looking at now is just the spend that they’re doing. If you guys were home on Thanksgiving watching the (NFL) games, (our promos were) everywhere and like 55 million people watched. As that starts to happen over several years, it’s just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.”

Starting big

The first major event as part of the deal is a loaded UFC 324 card Jan. 24 at T-Mobile Arena that will include perhaps the biggest women’s UFC fight to date. Former two-division champion Amanda Nunes is coming out of retirement to challenge two-time Olympic judo gold medalist Kayla Harrison for the women’s bantamweight title.

It will be a new start time of 6 p.m., one of the lesser-publicized changes that will be implemented as part of the deal.

The ESPN era went out on a high note at T-Mobile Arena, with Petr Yan winning a dramatic unanimous decision to end Merab Dvalishvili’s win streak and bantamweight title reign.

“What a hell of a way to end the ESPN era,” White said. “The relationship with ESPN has been incredible.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.