Do I think there will be a slowdown in customers buying UFC tickets? No. They clearly have an established audience that doesn't know the sport's history, hence they aren't going to seek out comparables and discover that the current product is suboptimal.
What I do think TKO is at risk of is alienating media partners for their next renewal cycles -- but that is such a long time down the road that management's gamble is that there will always be a new money mark willing to pay up or that currently less-than-satisfied media partners will have amnesia and forget about the complaints.
Besides, who else is a live and pre-recorded content factory that can match TKO inventory?
God damn Dry Tits Shapiro. I swear the pacing of the Paramount broadcast is giving Fox Sports 1 vibes. It’s getting to the point where I won’t patronize their sponsors because all the same ads over and over annoyed me.
The viewing experience of UFC on Paramount is simple. If you want to watch the live experience, you are going to pay a significant advertising tax as the price of admission. It's not enough to pay for the subscription. Advertising is built in on the TKO side as well as Paramount.
In other words, even if you pay for an ad-free version of Paramount, you will still get bombarded with advertising from TKO's side. Which makes buying the ad-free version of Paramount less valuable, which in the long run for their financial prospects is probably what they would prefer to see.
The bizness of sport. Fell asleep before the main event during the blue-out goofy music ad spaces, woke up round 1 of main, thank goodness !
Do I think there will be a slowdown in customers buying UFC tickets? No. They clearly have an established audience that doesn't know the sport's history, hence they aren't going to seek out comparables and discover that the current product is suboptimal.
What I do think TKO is at risk of is alienating media partners for their next renewal cycles -- but that is such a long time down the road that management's gamble is that there will always be a new money mark willing to pay up or that currently less-than-satisfied media partners will have amnesia and forget about the complaints.
Besides, who else is a live and pre-recorded content factory that can match TKO inventory?
God damn Dry Tits Shapiro. I swear the pacing of the Paramount broadcast is giving Fox Sports 1 vibes. It’s getting to the point where I won’t patronize their sponsors because all the same ads over and over annoyed me.
The viewing experience of UFC on Paramount is simple. If you want to watch the live experience, you are going to pay a significant advertising tax as the price of admission. It's not enough to pay for the subscription. Advertising is built in on the TKO side as well as Paramount.
In other words, even if you pay for an ad-free version of Paramount, you will still get bombarded with advertising from TKO's side. Which makes buying the ad-free version of Paramount less valuable, which in the long run for their financial prospects is probably what they would prefer to see.
There was actually one area where they have removed advertising…..
The corner stools for 324 were just plain with the UFC logo. There was no PRIME branding. PRIME no longer appears to be a sponsor in 2026.
It will be interesting to see if the corner stools remain ad/branding free for 325 this weekend.
I haven't watched the UFC 324 archives yet, so I'll compare what I see for advertising there versus what I saw live...