TKO executive calls pay-per-view model ‘antiquated’
TKO says pay-per-view is a barrier between its product and the fans.
On the heels of the announcement that UFC events are moving to Paramount Plus, TKO CEO Ari Emanuel and President and COO Mark Shapiro appeared on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street to talk about the deal.
“We wanted to get rid of the old model pay-per-view,” Emanuel said.
Shapiro added, “It’s antiquated. It’s just an antiquated model. What’s on pay-per-view these days? Once in a while, a big time boxing match that starts in the middle of the night and/or maybe some movies on DIRECTV. It’s an antiquated model. It’s a wall. It’s a barrier, at the end of the day, for our fans to get our product.”
“This will be well-received by our athletes, by our fans, and that was crucially important to Dana White,” he continued.
Earlier in the conversation, Shapiro and Emanuel discussed UFC events also airing on CBS in addition to Paramount Plus, and why that’s important for expanding the promotion’s fanbase.
“It was important to us to have CBS play a big component in this,” Shapiro said. “This is Paramount Plus exclusively, but CBS will have simulcast on many of the fights and likely all of the numbered events which are formerly the pay-per-view fights.”
“For us also we wanted the reach of CBS,” Emanuel said. “When we were at ESPN and Disney, we always actually were asking for a little bit of ABC because we want the broadest reach.”
The all-inclusive deal is for $7.7 billion over seven years and includes 13 UFC numbered events (formerly UFC pay-per-views) and 30 Fight Night events annually beginning in January 2026. All UFC events will be available to Paramount Plus subscribers without additional purchase required, effectively ending UFC’s pay-per-view model that it had used since its inception in 1993.
Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro’s full appearance on CNBC is available below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.