Netflix had the first crack at the UFC. It still didn’t land it.
Recently unredacted court filings, published by wrestling reporter Brandon Thurston, show that Netflix’s media rights deal with WWE “includes a right of first negotiation for UFC domestic rights.”
Unredacted: WWE’s media rights deal with Netflix gave Netflix first rights to negotiate for UFC domestic media rights. Those rights ultimately went to Paramount, not Netflix.
Netflix has aired Raw every Monday since January 2025 under its deal with TKO, the parent company of both WWE and the UFC. Many in the industry expected the UFC to follow. Instead, Paramount and Skydance landed exclusive rights to every UFC event in a seven-year deal worth more than $1 billion per year.
TKO president Mark Shapiro said after that deal that the UFC had gotten “pretty close with Netflix,” but the streamer “didn’t want to have the volume” that Paramount took on. Netflix was mainly interested in the numbered events, which would have left Fight Nights and Dana White’s Contender Series to be sold elsewhere. TKO preferred one partner for all of it.
The UFC began streaming on Paramount+ this year.
