With the UFC’s ESPN deal set to expire, TKO president-COO and former ESPN executive Mark Shapiro says the mixed martial arts league led by Dana White wants to ink a renewal with Disney during a three-month negotiating window from Jan. 15 to April 15.
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No formal conversations have started but “it is our intention to re-sign with ESPN and Disney because they they’ve shown that they do it best. They understand synergy. They understand marketing. They do a great job technologically, with developing their platforms, engaging their consumers. And of course, ESPN flagship, which is their direct to consumer, is on the way. So we’re anxious to see what that’s all about and where we can fit in there,” he told investors at a Goldman Sachs media conference.
“I would also tell you that, you know, it’s rare when you have a CEO of a major media company that gets so granularly involved on all levels of content. And that’s what Bob Iger does … He’s a sports freak. He now owns a women’s soccer team in the NWSL with his wife, Willow [Bay]. He came up through ABC Sports, is a huge boxing fan. And, when I worked at ESPN, there wasn’t a Monday morning I didn’t get notes on sports content for the weekend while he was running Disney. Those are the kind of champions you want to be with. And I think folks underestimate how much money ESPN and Disney spend on a weekly basis promoting our UFC fights.”
In July, Iger and Bay inked a deal to become controlling owners of LA’s Angel City Football club.
That said, Shapiro added, there other platforms are looking for premium sports content and demand is outstripping supply. “So, if we get out of that window and we don’t have a deal, we will immediately take up with two or three platforms specifically that have told us they’re anxious to have those conversations.”
The UFC’s current broadcast deal with ESPN (where it’s been airing since 2018) runs through 2025.
There has been a surge of interest in live sports, which can still drive ratings and advertising amid the steady decline in linear television. Even Netflix, after years of demurring, acknowledged that with a landmark ten year, $5 billion deal for WWE Raw early this year, its first big sports push. It subsequently negotiated two Christmas Day NFL games.
Shapiro said the streamer “could prove to be our best partner yet.”
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Netflix “is the real engine behind Raw and, by the way, much of what we’re doing internationally, and we’re excited. I’ve seen their promotion plans, their marketing plans, the way they’re getting behind us, the way they’re using the NFL holiday games to promote WWE Raw moving to Netflix. They are going to be a battleship when it comes to helping us grow our brand and grow our audience.”
Starting in January 2025, Netflix be the exclusive home of Raw (formerly at USA Network) in the U.S., Canada, UK and Latin America. Additional territories from Netflix’s footprint of more than 190 will be added over time.
TKO Group, which holds the UFC and WWE, was spun out about a year ago by Endeavor, where Shapiro is also president and chief operating officer.
The company faced a setback this summer when a judge nixed a $335 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by former fighters.
The ruling was unusual, Shapiro said, because the plaintiffs themselves had approved the settlement. The judge asked the parties to re-engage, and they are. But “it’s a difficult one, because we’re not going to just be writing a bigger check. This is, frankly, at the top of where we wanted to ever be, or ever thought we would be,” Shapiro said.
“If there is an adverse outcome, we will go all the way. I want to make that clear, we will appeal, and we will appeal, and we will appeal, and we will appeal, just like the NFL said they were going to do with their Sunday Ticket – Direct TV situation. This is kind of absurd what’s happened. Nobody is on board with it. The plaintiffs want the money … All this is doing is lining the pockets of more lawyers.”
In June, a Los Angeles jury awarded plaintiffs circa $4.7 billion in damages in an antitrust suit again the National Football League around the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV. A federal judge tossed out the judgement last month , concluding that the experts put forth by plaintiffs were using faulty economic models.
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