UFC could be finding its home exclusively on Netflix

Pay-per-view is how most combat-sports organizations make a bulk of their money these days but we have seen a general decline in the amount of people that are actually buying. This could be for many reasons including the quality of fight cards, the fact that some PPV's that are streaming have buffering issues and other problems that irritate customers out of even attempting to purchase the next big fight, and also because there has been an increase in the amount of ways that a person can stream a fight illegally online.

Whatever the reasons are, UFC is reportedly in talks with Netflix for the streaming giant to acquire exclusive broadcasting rights for all UFC events.

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I used to be a lot more enthusiastic about Netflix than I am today. I was one of the people that had a Netflix subscription in the early days when they were basically the only game in town, but as streaming services increased in number, there is no longer a "one stop" place to get most of the things you want to see. Getting sports on these services normally incorporates having what I consider a far too expensive subscription so I don't even bother. If the event is big enough I will go to a bar to watch it or over to a friend's house that is wealthy enough to afford the various packages. In my own group of sport oriented friends, I don't know anyone that actually pays for pay-per-view events.

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I think Dana is pretending to care more than he actually does, but recently, ESPN, who is the main broadcaster of UFC events now, has been having serious issues with handling the demand and users have been irate when their "live broadcast" has buffering issues to the point where people are getting updates on their phones about fight results minutes before the fight they are watching, which is meant to be live, even happens. Yeah yeah, I know that these people should just switch off notifications but at the end of the day the customers are paying a hefty price for truly "live" experience and when it turns out to not be that way, I think they are well within their rights to be pissed off about it.

This combined with declining PPV sales in a general sense could be why Zuffa is even talking to or about a deal with Netflix in the future.

There is also the fact that WWE events are now exclusively on Netflix and both UFC and WWE are under the umbrella of the same company called TKO or Endeavor Group. I don't really understand the ownership but I do know that UFC and WWE are intertwined and basically under the same roof. If WWE has success with major events such as Wrestlemania then it could be logical to assume that Netflix has the capacity to accommodate millions of people that are all trying to watch the same live event at the same time.

but we don't have to go very far back in time to see how perhaps Netflix isn't actually prepared to meet this sort of demand.

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I'm disappointed that this is true, but the Tyson vs. Paul boxing shitshow was the biggest live event in streaming history. It had loads of issues as Netflix's servers were unable to keep up with demand. This was a real eye-opener for anyone that was hoping that sports would be available in an online capacity because even though that fight was shite, it's made even worse when you are constantly dealing with a spinning loading icon many times during a fight.

Especially in fights, seconds matter a lot. Things can change immediately in the blink of an eye and there is no replay that is going to capture the excitement of a moment when that happens. This is why I stay glued to the screen during UFC events, even if I perceive them as being boring at the time. Don't worry, I will complain about them later :)

ESPN currently has the contract with UFC but both parties have been relatively unhappy with this "marriage." ESPN has kind of a stupid standpoint on this because ESPN is complaining about how there aren't enough PPV buys, but at the same time they are having great difficulty in delivering the PPV's that they already sell. Well? Which way do you want it?

ESPN currently pays UFC around a billion dollars a year for the broadcasting and streaming rights. If Netflix were to attempt to acquire the streaming rights to UFC, it is understandable that UFC would expect significantly more money from this potential contract since Netflix, at least for now, will not allow charging extra for pay-per-view events. I really hope that doesn't change as well.

It would be interesting to see and if UFC was to do this with Netflix it could be absolutely huge for Netflix. There are a ton of MMA fans out there that would be very willing to get a subscription to Netflix if it meant that they would have access to all events, especially if there was a back catalog of older fights as well.

We don't really need to get too worked up about this just yet though since the ESPN deal is still good until 2026.