Dana White Sets a $10 Billion Target for the Next UFC Media Deal

Dana White is already talking about the UFC's next broadcast agreement. The promotion is in the early part of a seven-year contract valued at $7.7 billion, a deal that runs through 2032 and that several observers described as above market value when it was announced. Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast, White made clear that he does not see that figure as a ceiling.

A bigger number for the next cycle

White rounded the current agreement up to "an $8 billion deal" and claimed that its announcement caught the attention of the most powerful league in American sports. According to him, NFL executives gathered to discuss the money they believed had gone to the UFC instead of to them. He prefaced that account by saying he did not know it for a fact, and then said that he did.

White also explained why, in his view, Paramount paid that amount. He said the network made the investment because it believes the UFC can have a real effect on its wider business. In his view, the job for the next five years is to deliver on that belief, and the reward would come when the contract expires.

I want 10 billion after we get out of this deal.

The market around the UFC

Not everyone accepts White's explanation for the size of the Paramount contract. Some business analysts have suggested that the network deliberately overpaid for UFC rights to help a separate merger worth about $110 billion. White and executives at the UFC's parent company, TKO Group Holdings, are now looking toward larger deals.

The wider sports-rights market is also moving in that direction. The NBA holds a media deal worth $77 billion, while the NFL is reportedly looking at opting out of its own $110 billion contract in search of even more money. Streaming services continue to compete for live sports rights.

The UFC has dropped the pay-per-view model and now works to event quotas under the Paramount agreement. White also claimed recently that the UFC now ranks among the top four sports leagues. The current contract has about six years left to run before the next negotiation.