The UFC has inked a new multi-year broadcasting deal with online outlet Eleven Sports for the UK and Irish markets, it was announced today.
The deal will take over the existing partnership the UFC has with BT Sports and it will come into action on January 1st, 2019. UFC 232 on December 29 in Las Vegas will almost certainly be the final event to be broadcast under the existing deal with BT Sports.
BT Sports has held the rights for the market since 2013.
“UFC Fight Nights will be shown live on ELEVEN SPORTS, whilst ELEVEN will have the option to make some events available in partnership with other broadcast platforms,” the UFC said of the deal in a statement.
✍ @ElevenSports_UK is to become the home of @ufc in UK and Ireland from January 2019 in a multi-year agreement.
ELEVEN has secured rights to all 4⃣2⃣live UFC events in 2019, as well as over 1⃣5⃣0⃣ hours of UFC original and archive programming. pic.twitter.com/b9t1TOLmEj
— Eleven Sports Spokesperson (@ElevenSportsHQ) September 27, 2018
Whereas BT Sports broadcast all UFC events, pay-per-view or otherwise, without additional payment beyond the monthly subscription, language exists in the Eleven Sports announcement which suggests that they could charge extra for numbered UFC events.
Eleven Sports also has the rights to Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A but not the English Premier League, which BT Sports retains rights to.
