With the upcoming broadcast deal with Paramount CBS, the pay-per-view era of UFC is coming to an end! Or at least it is for lucky U.S. fans, who will no longer have to pay 80 dollars for every numbered event.
That’s not the case for every other market, though. UFC Senior VP of International and Content David Shaw was on hand following the promotion’s big Paris, France event to answer media questions, and one thing he clarified was that PPVs will continue to be a thing in many international markets.
“What we’ve changed with Paramount with the deal in the US, we just changed the distribution platform for our content,” Shaw said. “So, PPV will no longer exist in the US. We’ve still got vibrant PPV businesses in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a number of other places.”
Too bad for Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand fans, who are still expected to spend $80, $60, and $40 per event respectively.
It makes sense. Paramount CBS is paying $7.7 billion for the UFC’s U.S. broadcast rights only. The promotion has dozens of international deals in place under their own terms, and that doesn’t change just out of some general sense of fairness to fans. It still sucks for those of us stuck behind a pay-per-view paywall while Americans are about to get all Fight Nights and numbered events for just $12.99 a month.
The good news is this may just be temporary. One specific detail mentioned during the press run for the Paramount CBS / UFC partnership was that Paramount has first dibs on any international rights that expire.
For U.S. fans, Paramount+ is currently running a promotion until September 18th where you can get a half price annual subscription, so a Premium plan costs $59.99 rather than $119.99.
For everyone else around the world: no half price, and no UFC content. Boo!
