No More UFC PPVs: UFC and Paramount New Streaming Deal in 2026

Zak Drapeau
Aug 11
2 min read

by Zak Drapeau 8/11/2025 FansOnlySportz

Just announced this morning, the UFC's streaming rights have been bought out by Paramount+ starting in 2026 for a 7-year deal. The deal is worth $7.7 Billion for every UFC event (listed as 43 scheduled annual events per year,) over that 7 year period.

At the moment, the listed price for Paramount+ monthly subscription is $7.99 with ads or $12.99 without ads. Much cheaper than the monthly price of around $91.98 ($11.99 a month for ESPN+ and $79.99 for each UFC PPV.

This new deal will revitalize the UFC's global reach to its' fans by making their content much more easily accessible. This deal will also be great for Paramount+ as a "second-tier" streaming service millions of people will now buy their subscription and a larger percentage will buy the annual subscription of $119.99 as well.

The SMALL downside to this deal is the absence of the UFC on cable TV. For the entirety of the UFC-ESPN streaming deal, most UFC Fight Nights and UFC PPV-preliminary fights were on free TV on ESPN's cable channel. Now, the events will be exclusively broadcasted from the streaming platform.

This deal is part of what is being called a "landslide" of sports leagues broadcasting rights. With the WWE's rights just recently being sold to WWE last week, Formula 1's rights likely being sold to Apple TV and MLB's rights rumored to being sol to the highest bidder when their current CBA comes to a close in 2028.

Paramount+ has recently been bought by Skydance Media on August 8th in an $8 Billion merger itself. Skydance Media CEO David Ellison has commented that "[the] UFC is a unicorn asset that comes up about once a decade" - CNBC.

With the UFC dawning a new ear starting in 2026, who's to say where the "fastest-growing sports company in the world" will soar to over the 7-year deal? Odds are this will bring in even more eyes to the sport and with their ability to watch all of UFC's content now, will bring about much more consistent and die-hard fans in the proces