The UFC is making a move to ESPN starting in January of 2019, but there is another potential big change coming for the promotion in 2019.
A report from the Sports Business Journal is stating the UFC will get a larger cut of pay-per-view revenue in 2019, going from a 50% cut to a 70% cut.
“[UFC president Dana White] also has upped the UFC’s share of revenue from its pay-per-views, negotiating the portion taken by distributors from the industry standard of 50 percent down to closer to 30 percent. And when viewers stream the show directly from the UFC’s website or Fight Pass, he cuts out the distributors entirely,” the Sports Business Journal states.
Fox example, if the total revenue for UFC pay-per-views in 2018 were $100 million, it would be $50 million to the pay-per-view companies and $50 million to the UFC. With that alleged new deal in place and if we use the same $100 million number, it would be $30 million to the pay-per-view providers and $70 million to the UFC.
Even though the UFC will obviously benefit from the apparent change, no word yet on if any of that additional money will trickle down to the fighters who compete on those cards.
