NEWSMAX

Sam, it.

Well, so she was supposed to buy, like, my. Like, supposed to buy it for 30. He's been holding it for, like, years. If I can connect him with the buyer, then I get a Find your speed. I get a easy. My punch. Dude, I just think, let's. Let's. Let's get this guy's household. Hundred percent. This house is insane. Yeah, crazy.

It's, it's. We'Re playing tomorrow with Bessemer, John o'. Brien, so tight tomorrow. Hang out. We got to do a four hour stream. I have problem with that because, like, once we're in the flow and we're hanging out, like, but you can't get back in the flow after. And you can see our viewership. If it's not an announcement, it's just like an introduction. I almost feel like we should be like asking them rather than like, hey, like, what's the status of your company? Either join the joke or don't join the joke. Like, here's what we're kind of talking about. Here's the time. Language going on. Right. I think it'll just be regular. We're going to. You have them back. Yeah. We've done auditions we didn't like how many people win.

Sitting, going home after this and sitting down. But, like, there's millions of people who. That is what they. How they love to, like, what they love to do. That's what I'm saying is, like. But some people, like, don't have. I'll try.

It's.

I do that, but try to get a little closer to it.

That.

I also think that it.

Like, I don't have to click any buttons to open Instagram Reels or TikTok or YouTube. And with pay per View, it's, like, technically difficult. It's kind of janky. Tech systems. Is that a real headwind or is that, like, fake news? So there's definitely friction to buying pay per views. You gotta, like, be on a traditional television. It's not like in app purchase, like, double tap and face id, like, that level. It's not that easy. I mean, I think you can go in the ESPN app and, like, buy the pay per view, but a lot of people aren't buying the pay per view to watch it on their phone. Sure. I think the bigger challenge and something that. And Apple would take 30% if you paid on your phone. So even then, I don't know. I think they would. Because it's digital world. It's digital. Oh. Cause it's. It's for sure. It's for sure digital. So. But. But the funny thing is, Dana's been in this challenge because he. He. He gets very frustrated about illegal streams. And he'll Every now and then he'll be like, if you're watching a stream tonight, illegal stream tonight, we're coming for you. We're coming for you. And everyone's like, okay, I don't know how you're planning to do that, but they try to take. I think that they try to like, DDoS, the various streaming sites. Oh, interesting. Like, you can just like, send a. Ton of texts, and then they probably have someone, like, talking to Twitch and being like, we are going live right at this time. You need to have someone searching and taking down streams actively. Yeah, but there's plenty of. Plenty of other, like, more decentralized illegal. Streams that are happening. All these different ones. Yeah. Random URLs, even just somebody spinning up their own thing. And so Dana was in a tough position because the more he talks about illegal streaming affecting the business, the more people are like, wait, I can stream it illegally. Streisand effect. Yeah. And so he had been looking for a new home for ufc. People had debated, you know, would Netflix be a potential buyer there. There's a lot of potential candidates. Meta quest. You have to buy the headset. You got to watch it in VR. I'm sure. I mean, Dana's obviously on the meta board, and I'm sure that that idea. I mean, $7.7 billion, that's one researcher. Just. Just cut one head, one headcount from msl, and you're good. And Zuck can Just own all of UFC and be like, look, put on the headset or you don't get to watch. Yep. Well, the deal that was reported. We're in Yahoo Sports how the UFC landed a 7.7 billion dollar deal with Paramount after whirlwind 48 hours, according to TKO execs. Even so, beginning in 2026, all UFC events will stream on Paramount, plus with select events also airing on CBS. And so anyways, Ben folks is reporting. Just how big of a surprise was the UFC's bombshell 7.7 billion dollar deal with Paramount and CBS? So big that even UFC CEO Dana White didn't see it coming. No, this is a quote. No, I didn't think this is where we'd end up. White said Monday during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. Shout out to Pat to discuss the new broadcasting rights deal. But this is sort of how it played out. I love it. These guys are obviously smart guys, very aggressive. He's talking about the team, the new team over at Paramount. So in an interview with cnbc, TKO President and CEO Mark Shapiro said he initially expected to make a deal that would bring only the UFC Fight Night events to Paramount. But after Skydance and Fight Night events have always aired on espn, just fully ad supported. Yeah, got it. But after Skydance Media completed its deal to purchase control of Paramount last week, Shapiro said the deal for the entirety of the UFC's US broadcast rights came together in just 48 hours. Now, instead of just the 30 UFC Fight Night events per year, Paramount will feature. And the Fight Night events were events that wouldn't draw big pay per view buys. Those were not the numbered UFC events. Correct. So it was like UFC 776. That's like, like pay per view fight nights. Just random on the. Yeah, there's only 13 of those events. Okay. Per year, 13 numbered and 30 fight nights. So almost every week there's something if you're always actually fan, but you're really once a month is when you really want to tune in. But for the. They sort of depend on more casual fans historically to drive pay per views. People that are like, I watch UFC when Conor McGregor's fighting, right? That's what really spike the pay per view and have kind of a power. Law outcome that people getting together being like, hey, we're going to buy the pay per view, we're gonna, we're gonna watch it, that kind of thing. So possibly the biggest news in all of this for fight fans is the end of UFC's pay per view era. Ever since the first UFC event in 1993, pay per view has been a vital part of the UFC strategy. Remember ufc, when it started airing on tv, was thought to be. It was so shocking and violent to people that even politicians wanted to get it banned. Wow. Like, they were like, this should not be on television. So it had to be in that bucket. Oh, it had to be paper. Cuz it was like. Yeah, it was like adult restricted. Anyway, do the fighters need to sleep well before the fights? Of course. They have to be on 8 sleep pod 5.

Before we go into the deal. So UFC landed a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount after a whirlwind 48 hours, according to TKO executives. But zoom out for me. Explain UFC. This is. This is the punching one or the punching one and the kicking one. How does. This is one of your best bets. So Senra and I love ufc. Yep. And we'll text John and say, hey, John, do you want to watch? You want to watch? Come over and watch, like, the pay per view tonight. The game. Awesome. I love watching the game. My boys. Who's playing tonight? Yeah, I mean, I'm there if the. If the teams are good. Yeah, there's a good matchup. Yeah. But it depends on who's starting. I want to know the starting. It'll depend on the starting line. I want to know who's playing. So ufc, the kicking and punching one. The kicking and punching one. They can do both. And wrestling. They can do wrestling, too. And choking. Okay. Rear naked chokes. Got it. Popular. Got it. Kind of a mixture of experts model in fighting sports. Got it. Yes. Multimodal. Yes, exactly. So long relied on the pay per view model. Worked well before the Internet and illegal streaming. And the pay per view model has been in decline. UFC has also struggled to surface new American strength superstars. A lot of the biggest stars are international, but UFC's biggest market is in the U.S. international stars have a lot of fans in the U.S. but they're not driving pay per views. Right. People in Brazil are not paying $100 to watch a single card. Right. And so the pay per view model has been in decline. The UFC's relationship with ESPN has been a little bit rocky. Pay per view model in decline. Is that. Is that just because of the trends in, like, how. How yappy and how popular the fighters are, or is there something else going on, like, a technological level where, like, I don't have to click any buttons to open Instagram Reels or TikTok or YouTube. And with pay per view, it's, like, technically difficult. It's kind of janky. Tech systems. Is that like, a real headwind or is that, like, fake news? So there's definitely friction to buying pay per view. You got to, like, be on a traditional television. It's not like in app purchase, like, double tap and face id, like, that level. It's not that easy. I mean, I think you can go in the ESPN app and, like, buy the pay per view, but a lot of people aren't buying the pay per view to watch it on their phone. Sure. I think the bigger challenge and something that. And Apple would take 30% if you paid on your phone. So even then, I don't know. World, it's digital. Oh. Cause it's, it's for sure. It's for sure digital. So. But the funny thing is, Dana's been in this challenge because he, he, he gets very frustrated about illegal streams, and he'll every now and then, he'll be like, if you're watching a stream tonight, illegal stream tonight, we're coming for you. We're coming for you. And everyone's like, okay, I don't know how you're planning to do that, but they try to take, they, they, I, I, I, I think that they Try to like DDoS, the various streaming sites. Oh, interesting. Like, you can just, like, send a. Ton of Twitch, and then they probably have someone, like, talking to Twitch and being like, we are, we are going live right at this time. You need to have someone searching and taking down streams actively. Yeah, but there's plenty of, Plenty of other, like, more decentralized streams that are happening. All these different ones. Yeah. Random URLs, even just somebody spinning up, like, their own thing. And so Dana was in a tough position because the more he talks about illegal streaming affecting the business, the more. People are like, wait, I can stream it illegally. Streisand effect. Yeah. And so he had been looking for a new home for ufc. People had debated, you know, would Netflix be a potential buyer there. There's a lot of potential candidates. Meta quest. You have to buy the headset. You got to watch it in VR, I'm sure. I mean, Dana's obviously on the meta board, and I'm sure that that idea got $7.7 billion. That's one researcher. Just, just cut one. One headcount from MSL, and you're good. And Zuck can just own all of UFC and be like, look, put on the headset or you don't get to watch. Yep. The deal that was reported were in Yahoo. Sports, how the UFC landed a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount after whirlwind 48 hours, according to TKO execs. So beginning in 2026, all UFC events will stream on Paramount, airing on CBS. And so anyways, Ben, folks, is reporting just how big of a surprise was the UFC's bombshell $7.7 billion deal with Paramount and CBS? So big that even UFC CEO Dana White didn't see it coming. No, this is a quote. No, I didn't think this is where we'd end up. White said Monday during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. Shout out to Pat to discuss the new broadcasting rights deal, but.