Paramount and UFC are deepening their new media alliance with fresh seasons of “Dana White’s Contender Series” and “The Ultimate Fighter,” which will move to Paramount+ as part of the $7.7 billion rights deal that makes the streamer the U.S. home of UFC from 2026. The unscripted shows will stream in the United States, Latin America and Australia and sit alongside 13 numbered events and 30 Fight Nights each year, with select cards simulcast on CBS.
UFC chief executive Dana White announced that both series will begin airing on Paramount+ in 2026, starting with the first full year of the seven-year agreement that replaces the promotion’s long-running relationship with ESPN. The move completes a shift that puts live events, reality programming and prospect-driven fight nights under the same streaming roof, beginning with UFC 324 on January 24, 2026.
“Dana White’s Contender Series,” which launched in 2017, has become the promotion’s primary scouting platform. Prospects fight at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas in front of White and a panel of matchmakers, chasing immediate contracts. The show has already produced multiple current and former champions and tends to run in a compact late-summer window, giving fans a steady run of midweek fights that often feed directly into pay-per-view and Fight Night cards.
“The Ultimate Fighter,” first aired in 2005, remains the flagship reality franchise that helped push UFC into mainstream sports television. The series follows fighters living and training together under rival coaches, with tournament bouts that can lead straight into the UFC roster. Its 20th-anniversary season, TUF 33, paired Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen as coaches, underscoring how the format still attracts high-profile names and provides character-building shoulder content around the live schedule.
Paramount and TKO executives describe the rights package as a landmark, with an average annual value of $1.1 billion and a structure that brings all premium UFC events behind a single subscription paywall rather than separate pay-per-view fees. CEO David Ellison told investors that removing the “secondary pay-per-view paywall” will make major events accessible to every Paramount+ subscriber and argued that year-round UFC programming should keep churn lower than seasonal sports.
The strategy comes with trade-offs for consumers and staff. Paramount+ will raise its U.S. prices in early 2026, with exact figures still undisclosed, after warning of upcoming increases in Canada and Australia. At the same time, Paramount Skydance has begun large-scale layoffs and asset sales while pledging more than $1.5 billion in fresh programming spend next year, with UFC, Zuffa Boxing and high-profile entertainment deals positioned as the core of that investment. For UFC, placing its two main talent-and-reality series on Paramount+ ensures that the pipeline feeding those live events sits inside the same ecosystem that now carries every fight.
