UFC action has called ESPN and ESPN+ home inside the United States of America for seven years. Flashback to 2018: Former UFC rightsholder FOX acquires the rights to WWE SmackDown! in a Friday evening timeslot under the FOX Sports banner in a $400 million (USD) deal.
The deal ran for five years, ending in the fall of 2024 and came with a per-episode cost of $7.6 million. Since Smackdown! left FOX, the network’s sports division has run live events in primetime on Friday evenings.