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UFC Leaves ESPN for New Streaming Partner and Ends Pay-Per-View Era

Stephen Douglas

Dana White and the UFC are headed to a new streaming platform in 2026.
Dana White and the UFC are headed to a new streaming platform in 2026. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The UFC has struck a huge deal with Paramount and CBS to broadcast all of its events. Paramount will pay the UFC $7.7 billion to air the UFC for the next seven years and in the process, it has ended the fight organization’s pay-per-view era.

UFC has employed a pay-per-view model for its biggest fights since the very first event in 1993. For the last few years, those cards have been available through ESPN+, with subscribers paying an extra PPV price for each event.

Dana White announced the move on X:

“Without a Pay-Per-View model” might be the most surprising collection of words ever attributed to Dana White. The UFC’s first event on November 12, 1993, was a pay-per-view. Through July 2025 there have been 318 traditional numbered UFC events and almost all of those were on pay-per-view.

It goes without saying that this is a monumental win for UFC fans who now get every event for what they used to pay for two pay-per-views. In an interview, president and chief operating officer of TKO Group Mark Shapiro, which owns the UFC, called the PPV model "a thing of the past,” via CNBC:

“What’s on pay-per-view anymore? Boxing? Movies on DirecTV? It’s an outdated, antiquated model. So, it was paramount to us—forgive the pun—where it’s one-stop shopping, especially for our younger fans in flyover states. When they find out, ’Wait, if I just sign up for Paramount+ for $12.99 a month, I’m going to automatically get UFC’s numbered fights and the rest of the portfolio?’ That’s a message we want to amplify.”

As for Paramount, this further bolsters its sports portfolio, which already includes the NFL, college football, soccer, golf and anything else that airs on CBS.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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