At Goldman Sachs’ telecom conference in San Francisco, Mark Shapiro, president and COO of TKO Group Holdings, offered rare insight into the company’s media rights strategy and future direction.
With UFC’s U.S. rights locked up in a $7.7 billion, seven-year deal with Paramount, Shapiro described the process as both competitive and strategic, revealing how ESPN, Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, DAZN, and Warner Bros. Discovery were all engaged in discussions.
“ESPN was always in the mix,” Shapiro noted, “but once it became clear they wouldn’t double the rights fee, we turned to the wider market.”
The Paramount deal, he said, was not just about money but about backing the Ellison family’s vision—“at the forefront of technology and content merging.”
Global Distribution and the Netflix Question
Had Netflix secured UFC rights, Shapiro confirmed, it would have been a global deal, similar to the streamer’s WWE Raw agreement. Instead, UFC’s international rights will be handled by IMG, which will market them across 150 countries.
“Selling media rights on UFC globally was in our best interest,” Shapiro explained. “Frankly, we thought IMG would do better than Netflix.”
This hybrid model—Paramount domestically, IMG internationally—shows how TKO intends to maximize value across fragmented markets while maintaining flexibility.
Beyond UFC: Zuffa, WWE, and Event Strategy
Shapiro teased that Zuffa Boxing’s media rights announcement is only “two to three weeks away,” noting that the Netflix-broadcast Canelo vs. Crawford fight served as Zuffa’s informal debut, with much of the undercard filled by its fighters.
On the event side, Shapiro emphasized host city fees as a growth area: “We’ve got a lot we can bring to town… three or four events a year for one fee spread across them.” With UFC, WWE, PBR, and soon Zuffa in its stable, TKO can package multiple premium properties for cities looking to boost tourism and visibility.
Shapiro also hyped Wrestlepalooza, a new WWE premium live event debuting later this month in Indianapolis. He positioned it as a future tentpole to sit alongside WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble.
TKO’s “Execution Story”
Throughout the session, Shapiro returned to a central theme: TKO’s current era is less about acquisitions and more about delivering on existing assets.
- Strong launches (new WWE and UFC events)
- Marketing expansion (pushing deeper into lifestyle and cultural partnerships)
- Margin growth and cashflow discipline
- Returns to shareholders (a $2B share buyback plan and a dividend that was just doubled)
Shapiro summed it up clearly: “We’re not here to talk about acquisitions. Of course we’ll be opportunistic, but this is about execution.”
365247 Consulting Insight
The UFC-Paramount deal and TKO’s broader positioning underscore three industry realities:
- Rights holders are no longer reliant on one partner. The days of locking everything into ESPN or a single broadcaster are fading; hybrid global deals maximize reach and revenue.
- Sports properties are ecosystems. Media rights are one piece of a broader puzzle that now includes host-city fees, premium live events, and lifestyle extensions.
- Execution is the differentiator. With rights fees peaking, the growth story shifts to operational excellence: event packaging, marketing, fan monetization, and disciplined shareholder returns.
For leagues, clubs, and investors, the key question is no longer “who will buy my rights?”—it’s “how do I maximize the ecosystem around them?”
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