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Endeavor is the parent company of the UFC, which signed a broadcasting deal with ESPN back in 2018 and a two years extension that will extend the deal until 2025.
Ari Emmanuel is the Endeavor CEO and he recently revealed that the UFC has one more year left before renewal talks can begin with ESPN.
“We have a great relationship with ESPN, love our relationship with them, and we have a year left until we can start our renewal,” Emanuel said during an appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference (transcript via Damon Martin of MMA Fighting). “I think it’s going to be a positive outcome for both parties but there’s a lot of buyers out there.”
The first ever UFC card to air after the ESPN deal was signed was UFC On ESPN+ 1, which featured Henry Cejudo defeating TJ Dillashaw in the main event.
Emmanuel also stated that there are potentially more buyers for the UFC broadcasting rights than there was when they moved to ESPN.
“You have six buyers in the marketplace,” Emanuel said. “When we made our first UFC deal, there was one buyer and the buyer was Bob Iger actually. He’s the one that actually brought it over. I think we’ve done an amazing job for the growth of ESPN+ and ESPN and we have The Contender Series. Now they just ordered The Ultimate Fighter that Conor McGregor is on. So all in all, it’s one of the fastest growing sports out there, that’s demographic, social and male/female and age category.”
