Amazon is taking a further step into the sports rights business by picking up non-exclusive U.S. rights to UFC PPV events, starting with Saturday’s UFC 222. Specific deal terms, including the deal’s length and cost, are not known at this time. A formal announcement is coming this morning. Amazon Head of Sports Jim DeLorenzo led negotiations for Amazon; a team of Endeavor execs handled the deal for UFC, led by IMG Media Senior VP & Head of North America Hillary Mandel and UFC Exec VP & CFO Andrew Schleimer. This deal comes as UFC has been shopping its overall media rights. Fox Sports has put an initial offer of $200M on the table, sources say, which would be a healthy increase over the $120M per year average it currently pays, with the final year payout coming in at $160M. When Endeavor bought UFC in '16, sale documents valued UFC media rights at $450M per year, but Endeavor sources have said they never expected to hit that number. The PPV cards will be available on Amazon’s Prime Video, but viewers do not have to be Prime members to order it. Amazon will allow viewers to access a replay of the card for 24 hours after the end of the event. Amazon is making UFC 222 available for $64.99 (John Ourand, Staff Writer).
ON THE HORIZON: RECODE's Kurt Wagner notes this is the first time Amazon has sold a PPV package for live sports, and it is a "reminder that Amazon sees live sports as an important video opportunity moving forward." Amazon paid $50M last year to stream "TNF" games and is in the "bidding to get a multi-year contract with the NFL" to stream the package again. Amazon’s move to PPV "should be another warning to cable companies that Amazon is becoming its own kind of cable company." It already does "a lot of what cable companies do, like provide a slate of movies and TV shows, some of them original, for a monthly fee." PPV is a "natural progression for where Amazon seems to be headed" (RECODE.net, 2/28).
