Eleven Confirms UFC Rights Deal
Eleven Sports has confirmed its long-rumoured acquisition of UK UFC rights starting in January 2019.
It follows incumbent rightsholder BT Sport’s decision not re-bid for the mixed martial arts brand’s portfolio of events.
The new, multi-year deal covers all 42 live UFC events in 2019, as well as over 150 hours of UFC original and archive programming.
The agreement will also give Eleven Sports the option to make some events available in partnership with other broadcast platforms – a key pillar of the challenger broadcaster’s long-term strategy.
Fight Nights that are shown live on Eleven Sports’ own platform will also be available on demand in full after the event.
Commenting on the deal, David Shaw, UFC senior vice president, international and content: “We have worked very successfully with Eleven Sports in Belgium and Luxembourg and we are looking forward to extending our partnership here in the UK and Ireland.
“The UK and Ireland are amongst UFC’s strongest markets globally and with Eleven Sports making a significant impact here, it made perfect sense to partner with them to showcase our thrilling product to our loyal and passionate fans.”
Danny Menken, group managing director, Eleven Sports, said: “UFC has become a massive brand which has built a hugely dedicated and engaged following over 25 years, making it a perfect fit for our fan centric strategy.
“We are a big supporter of combat sports across our global markets and the fresh and innovative approach that we have taken with our properties has been very successful. We are looking forward to creating the same added value for the legions of MMA fans in the UK and Ireland”
UFC is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and has grown to be a premium global sports brand, with over 284 million fans worldwide. In 2018, it brought two sell out shows to the UK.
UFC adds to Eleven Sports’ growing UK rights portfolio, following the addition of top-flight football leagues, LaLiga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Eredivisie (Netherlands), Chinese Super League (from 2019) and Allsvenskan (Sweden).
The provider operates via an online streaming platformand is also in discussions with major broadcast platforms, third party streaming services and smart TV manufacturers to maximise access to its content in line with the “platform-agnostic” approach it uses in other global markets.
