UFC owners blame ESPN’s sudden price-hike for pay-per-views as due to illegal streaming

Shareholders of TKO Group Holdings, the unifying brand that houses UFC and WWE, no doubt boasts a mammoth Q2 revenue. According to a Variety report, UFC 300 and UFC 303 PPV cards performed magnificently well along with WrestleMania 40. However, when it comes to their streaming grind and fallout under ESPN, are all windfalls legal though?

That is one of the biggest problems Endeavor has been facing. During a quarterly financial call on Thursday, TKO Group Holdings president Mark Shapiro nudged details on ESPN. He mentioned that ESPN controls costs for pay-per-views as they have paid for the rights. As such, fans opting for more pirated streaming can make ESPN act on it.

ESPN and Disney were very aggressive, if you will, on pricing the pay-per-views and they have full control over that, but they have control given what they’re paying us for those rights…Over the period of our partnership, they probably went a little quicker and a little higher than we would have liked. We voiced that to them, especially in this era of piracy where we’re seeing our piracy numbers really jacked up, and we think that’s driven by them pricing it too high.
Mark Shapiro during a TKO Group Holdings quarterly financial call, Thursday; H/T: SBNation Network

The UFC’s contract with ESPN runs through 2025 and telecasts on various platforms like ESPN 2 and EPSN + till then. However, PPV prices have gone up from the stock $59.99 at launch to the current $79.99 cost in 2023. Battling piracy of UFC PPV events, Shapiro says this is quite a big cause.

Shapiro revealed TKO gradually sat down with ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and UFC bossman Dana White. Subsequently, they developed package deals where ESPN offered lower pricing on cards purchased beforehand. Contrarily, Fight Pass allows for streaming back old content similarly; hence, it’s all there for browsing. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of revenue.

ESPN UFC events ‘busted through expectations’ to lead TKO to big earnings

Despite ups and downs, UFC and ESPN have been a match made in heaven. The traditional PPV models often result in people opting for illegal streams. Head honcho White, who often relates low PPV points and fighter pay to illegal streaming, has cautioned about some changes.

ESPN’s broadcast of UFC events see quarterly numbers jump 29% to $394.4 million (Source: heavy.com/X)

In a ‘Money Movers’ CNBC Exclusive for CNBC TV, Dana White told certain things to co-anchor Sara Eisen. He said that UFC’s new deal, post-2025 if they opt out of ESPN, could find them on multiple streaming platforms at cost-effective pricing. For now, it’s ESPN all the way. Moreover, White confirmed that they have consequently helped.