|
 The
Sports Business Journal's John Ourand revealed how the WWE and UFC TV deals got
both companies over $4 billion in rights fees over the next five years.
According to the article: the initial $450 million media rights value number
connected with the UFC rights wasn’t the actual number but something tossed out
to attract suitors…Fox executives ended up with three options with the UFC: $200
million for less content, a split package with another network, or a complete
exit…Ari Emanuel of Endeavor was asked by Vince McMahon to handle the WWE TV
rights negotiations but Fox Sports' Eric Shanks told Vince it was a conflict of
interest to have Emanuel negotiate both deals…WWE met with ESPN four times but
ESPN wasn’t willing to commit to 52 weeks of programming or willing to put WWE
content on ESPN+ because of the WWE Network…once UFC signed with the deal with
ESPN for the initial $150 million package Endeavor's Mark Shapiro and Disney CEO
Bob Iger worked out the other half of the deal…during a meeting Emanuel and
Shapiro had with Viacom, the two got the word via text that ESPN wanted the
entire package for $300 million even though Viacom owns Bellator MMA…NBC/Universal
was offered a $265 million/year offer for Raw and $200 million/year for
SmackDown. NBCU picked Raw but let SmackDown go and Fox and WWE worked out the
SmackDown deal the next day…Turner Sports was interested in getting both WWE and
UFC but since the merger deal with AT&T hadn’t been approved they stayed on the
sidelines…new ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro was a UFC fan but former president
John Skipper didn’t care for UFC so his being there would have meant no deal. |
