ESPN+ and the UFC today announced that the former will be the exclusive distributor for the latter's pay-per-view events through 2025. In other words, to buy UFC PPV event, you'll need an ESPN+ subscription .
The deal began with UFC 236 back in April of 2019. It continues with the latest event as UFC 248 will stream Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero on March 7, 2020.
How to watch UFC 248 Adesanya vs. Romero on ESPN+ PPV
The PPV events will include everything on the main event cards. Bouts will be streamed in HD in English as well as Spanish. Prelim fights will continue to appear on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. And the early prelims will remain available on ESPN+, as well as to those who have UFC Fight Pass, or anyone who purchased the PPV event.
(Commercial establishments — ie sports bars — will continue to be able to purchase the PPV events.)
From the presser :
"With the addition of UFC PPV events, we are making ESPN+ an absolute must-have for any fan of the UFC and mixed martial arts," said Kevin Mayer, Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer & International, The Walt Disney Company. "In less than a year, ESPN+ has established itself as the leader in direct-to-consumer sports and this new programming agreement adds a significant business to our platform while reinforcing the value and strength of our product and our content lineup."
So what's it all going to cost?
- A new ESPN+ subscriber will get a year's worth of ESPN+ and a PPV event for $84.99.
- Existing ESPN+ subscribers can buy PPV events for $64.99 each.
All in all, a good deal for ESPN and the UFC — which already have proven to work well with each other . The UFC debuted on ESPN+ in January 2019, netting a ridiculous 568,000 new subscribers in just 48 hours.
ESPN+ costs $4.99 a month, or $49.99 a year. In addition to the UFC, you can find live events from pretty much every sport you can think off — soccer, boxing, basketball, tennis, baseball, lacrosse — plus original content as well.
