© Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
The UFC appears to have its eyes set on Netflix as its next media rights partner. Last week, MMA fans had issues buying UFC 313, which led to UFC’s Dana White addressing the issue during his post-fight press conference.
“Oh yeah, it made it to me,” White responded. “They were having problems buying it on ESPN+. I don’t know what happened with their platform tonight. There were a lot of pissed-off people.”
ESPN released a statement regarding the technical issues they had during UFC 313.
“Unfortunately, we experienced a technical issue that impacted purchases of the UFC PPV on ESPN+ shortly after 10pm ET. Our teams identified and resolved the issue, restoring full functionality ahead of the main event. We apologize for the inconvenience and are taking steps to ensure a better experience in the future.”
The NY Post’s Erich Richter reported that the UFC was furious with ESPN due to the technical issue.
During a video podcast, Richter said that it appeared that the UFC and ESPN were headed towards a divorce after their deal expires in 2025.
“This has been a bad marriage for a couple of years for both parties. The UFC is frustrated with the technology that ESPN is not up to speed yet, and ESPN is frustrated because they’re not getting the pay-per-view buys that were expected.”
Richter says that someone close to the situation told him that Netflix would “surely” be the UFC’s next landing spot once their current deal with ESPN ends.
It’s currently unclear if Netflix would continue with the UFC’s PPV model or include UFC events in their subscription, but we’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out.