Overview

• UFC’s seven-year U.S. rights move to Paramount+ with select CBS simulcasts in 2026 under a reported $7.7 billion agreement, ending traditional domestic pay‑per‑view fees for numbered events.
• TKO president Mark Shapiro said talks with Netflix were "pretty close" before the streamer insisted on taking only monthly numbered cards rather than the full slate that includes roughly 30 Fight Nights.
• Shapiro said Netflix would have offered the numbered events at no extra charge to subscribers, but its stance on volume "opened the door for Paramount and CBS."
• Netflix’s carriage of WWE Raw factored into its posture, as Shapiro said the company believed it already had the weekly volume it wanted and preferred pursuing one‑off spectacles.
• The shift leaves open questions about UFC’s event cadence and fighter pay structures that historically included pay‑per‑view points, even as UFC has signaled higher post‑fight bonuses starting with the new deal.