Dana White: 'Pay-per-view is not dead'

On Monday, the news broke that Paramount and TKO Group Holdings, Inc. had inked a seven-year media rights agreement in which Paramount will become the exclusive home of all UFC events in the U.S. beginning in 2026.

The deal, worth $7.7 billion, moves away from UFC’s existing pay-per-view model in favor of making premium events available at no additional cost to Paramount subscribers. The UFC moving away from PPV dominated the headlines, but UFC CEO Dana White says the PPV model is not dead, or off the table. 

White spoke about the deal with Paramount during Tuesday's Dana White's Contender Series Post-Fight Press Conference.

"It's not that it's on the table. The whole thing started going, 'Pay-per-view is dead.' Pay-per-view is not dead. We're on pay-per-view on Saturday, and the pay-per-view business is still very much alive and well," the UFC CEO said. 

"We were talking about pay-per-view with other streaming partners that we were talking to in the deal, but just not in this one," continued White. "Who knows what could happen? The beautiful thing about this business is every year something happens that I don't see coming. A fight you never thought would happen, or who knows. Now we're doing boxing and we're doing MMA. Who knows what could happen, and anything could be a pay-per-view. Something could be a pay-per-view still."

White stated that once the fight promotion signs a deal, they strive to achieve whatever goals the partner has in mind. But minds often change.  

"Whatever happens with our partner - When we go in and we do a new deal - We were with Spike TV. Then we were with FOX, ESPN, and now Paramount. All these guys have different objectives and goals that they want to do with their property over the next several years," White explained. 

"Whatever it is, we are aligned, and we get in and roll up our sleeves. We do what needs to be done. If it was going to be pay-per-view, it was going to be pay-per-view. If it was going to be subscription, subscription."