'All' UFC Numbered Events 'Likely' To Air On CBS, Says TKO President

The UFC announced on Monday a new seven-year, $7.7 billion agreement with Paramount Global in which Paramount+ will stream every UFC card, beginning in 2026. Paramount also said that CBS would simulcast "select numbered events," the monthly cards currently distributed as pay-per-views. However, TKO president Mark Shaprio says the plans is for "all numbered events" to also air on the main CBS broadcast network.

"It was important to us to have CBS play a big component in this," TKO president Mark Shapiro told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street on Monday. "As they’ve laid out, this is Paramount+ exclusively, but CBS will have simulcast on many of the fights and likely all of the numbered events, which are formerly the pay-per-view fights."

And that would be significant. 

The top UFC cards have long been limited in reach due to high pay-per-view costs at around $79.99. Major UFC cards would have an opportunity to reach millions of viewers on a broadcast network like CBS. 

Imagine the interest in, say, a UFC card at the White House live on CBS, which UFC president Dana White teased on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday.

"How about [this]? Fight card, from the White House, live and free on CBS, the network. Come on."

UFC Numbered Events on CBS

On CBS, and off pay-per-view, the UFC could become one of the most popular professional sports league in the country. Last year, Shapiro argued that the UFC was fourth, ahead of the NHL and behind the NFL, MLB, and the NBA.

"The ratings on ESPN and ESPN2, apples to apples against the NHL, even including the playoffs, we dwarf them," Shapiro said. "You put a Fight Night — not a pay-per-view, not a preliminary bout in front of the pay-per-view — a regular weekly Fight Night on ESPN does double-digit ratings… and the demos are anywhere between 20-40 percent up."

Of course, the UFC needs to better establish star fighters to ingratiate itself as a mainstream product. The promotion once had star power that rivaled the WWE, with Conor McGregor, Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones, and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Currently, few fighters have anything more than niche followings.

Finally, CBS is going to have to sell a significant number of monthly subscriptions to justify paying the UFC $1.1 billion a year. For reference, while different sports and fan bases, DAZN tried a similar model with boxing in 2017 and failed. 

To this point, no streaming service has successfully sold combat sports via monthly subscriptions. For the agreement not to be a disaster, Paramount would have to be the first.