UFC reaches deal with Amazon to sell PPVs on Prime

You can now buy UFC pay-per-views via Amazon Prime, an announcement which is getting a big push as important news by WME-Endeavor. Sports Business Daily shared the news along with the helpful information of which Amazon and WME execs put the deal together. So now you can add Amazon to the dozens of other places you can buy PPVs from ... even though we’ve been able to buy PPVs using the Amazon Fire for a while already.

This will mark the first time Amazon is offering a PPV sports broadcast through Prime, which I guess is a big deal. But the biggest hubbub coming from this news is the idea that it’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding potential future deals between Amazon and the UFC. The promotion’s TV deal with FOX ends later this year, and Amazon has been angling to push into live sports as part their bid to become a one stop shop for cable cutters. It seems like it would be a good fit for both companies and us MMA fans, and maybe this big announcement exists simply to kick up public opinion that agrees with that assessment.

The UFC’s content comes with a significant price tag, though. FOX has offered $200 million a year in these current negotiations, which is $80 million more than they pay now but well short of a $450 million dollar goal listed in leaked sales documents. But according to the Sports Business Daily, ‘Endeavor sources have said they never expected to hit that number.’

And while $200 million may not be outside the ballpark, perhaps the UFC would prefer to be on Amazon Prime which is available to anyone with the internet, rather than stuffed away on an expensive cable package tier propping up FOX Sports 1 and 2.