By Sarah Whitten
Copyright cnbc
Paramount finally merged with Skydance in early August, a union that was delayed for more than a year as the Federal Communications Commission launched an inquiry into alleged news distortion at Paramount’s subsidiary CBS.
The union was approved less than a month after Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to President Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit he filed against the company over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
It also occurred the week after CBS announced it was canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” At the time, Paramount and CBS executives released a statement saying the cancellation was “purely a financial decision against the challenging backdrop in late night.”
Ellison hit the ground running. Within just a few weeks of the merger closing, he announced a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal to make Paramount the exclusive U.S. home for TKO Group’s UFC mixed martial arts organization starting in 2026. The agreement means UFC will stop its pay-per-view model and events will be available directly to Paramount+ subscribers and, in some cases on CBS. Notably, this deal was nearly as expensive as the $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance.
Sports rights will be scarce in the coming years, as companies have already struck deals for broadcast and streaming for many major leagues. Apple is already expected to be the home of Formula 1, and Major League Baseball is waiting until its deals expire after the 2028 season to reorganize its media packages. That means it’s unlikely there will be many other top-shelf sports assets available in the marketplace for Paramount to acquire in the near-term.
“UFC is a unicorn asset that comes up about once a decade,” Ellison said in a statement at the time. He described himself as a UFC fan.
UFC is a desirable asset because events take place year-round, meaning fans will keep paying for monthly subscriptions and have less incentive to cancel seasonally than they do with other sports. There are 43 live events annually, consisting of 350 hours of live programming. Paramount is interested in buying UFC’s international rights to pair with U.S. rights.
“They’re looking to change the narrative, and the UFC deal alone is a big splash,” said Robert Fishman, analyst at MoffettNathanson.
And Paramount+ isn’t the only division of Paramount getting new content from big franchises. Ellison secured the rights to develop, produce and distribute a live-action feature film based on Activision’s Call of Duty videogame franchise.
