Netflix isn’t planning to make changes to its live content strategy. At least, not yet.
On April 15, the exclusive negotiating window between the UFC and ESPN officially expired. Now, other media companies like Amazon, Apple TV, and, of course, Netflix, can bid for the MMA juggernaut’s broadcast rights. As it stands, there’s no clear frontrunner, but all signs seemingly point toward Dana White and Co. pushing for a deal with Netflix.
However, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently attempted to pour some cold water on the rumors.
“Our live event strategy is unchanged … we remain really focused on the big, breakthrough events,” Sarandos said, according to journalist Damon Martin. “Our audiences love them … live is a relatively small part of our content spend”
While Sarandos’ comments seem to suggest that the streaming giant is not interested in acquiring broadcast rights to the biggest MMA promotion on the planet, Martin was quick to quell those concerns.
“If I went back to a year or whatever ago, I’m pretty sure he said something similar just before they did the $5 billion deal with WWE so it’s always tough to take these things at face value,” Martin added on X.
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Last year, World Wrestling Entertainment signed a massive deal with Netflix, making the streaming site the exclusive home for its flagship show, Monday Night Raw. And as everyone knows, the WWE and UFC are owned by the same parent company, TKO Group.
So it stands to reason that TKO would want both of their money-makers on the same platform, making it all that much easier for fans to tune in to both products without having to pay for multiple services.
If Netflix does end up becoming the new home for UFC events, it would likely spell the end of the promotion’s pay-per-view era, something fight fans would undoubtedly appreciate, with PPV events costing a whopping $80 plus tax.
Though it’s almost guaranteed that Netflix would once again jack up it’s prices to try and compensate for the expenditure, which could end up costing the site a cool $1 billion per year just to broadcast UFC events on its platform.
