The beginning of 2019 marked the start of a monumental partnership between the UFC and sports broadcast giant ESPN. With this new deal in place, the UFC also announced the move of all its pay-per-view broadcasts to ESPN+, making the network its exclusive PPV distributor in the United States.
This deal also gives the UFC a guaranteed amount on PPV sales, which in turn, massively boosts their contracted revenue. Ultimately, they won’t be relying too much on the likes of marquee superstars like Conor McGregor to pull in the numbers and sell out events to make money.