When the Ultimate Fighting Championship inked a seven-year broadcast deal with Fox in late 2011, it felt huge. That’s because, at the time, it was.
With four cards per year on the Fox network and myriad other events on channels such as FX, Fuel and later, FS1, the Las Vegas-based promotion entered uncharted territory with the opportunity to expose a legion of new viewers to a sport once derided as “human cockfighting.” It was also a significant increase in annual revenue from the UFC’s previous agreement with Spike TV.
Seven years later, the organization moved onward and upward, signing a five-year deal (that was later extended with the inclusion of a pay-per-view package) with ESPN worth a reported $1.