(L-R) Conor McGregor of Ireland punches Dustin Poirier in a lightweight fight during the UFC 257 event inside Etihad Arena on UFC Fight Island on January 23, 2021 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Chris Unger | UFC | Getty Images
In 2016, before Ultimate Fighting Championship sold for $4 billion to the company that would become Endeavor Group, the mixed martial arts league was nearly scooped up by Disney for a little bit more.
Disney and UFC had negotiated broad terms of a deal in which the entertainment giant would acquire the combat sports company for about $4.3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Disney, which owns the majority of sports broadcast network ESPN, has toyed with the idea of buying sports leagues for years, one of the people said. Then-Disney CEO Bob Iger was the model executive for brilliant intellectual property acquisitions, buying Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel.
Ultimately, Iger nixed the UFC deal. He felt the bloody and violent UFC brand didn't mesh with family friendly Disney, said the people, who asked not to be named because the negotiations were private. A Disney spokesperson didn't immediately comment.
Two years later, Disney's ESPN paid $1.5 billion for UFC TV rights in a five-year deal. That deal immediately increased the value of UFC to $7 billion, according to UFC CEO Dana White. Disney's ESPN+ also signed a $150 million per year deal to stream UFC fights in an agreement that runs out in 2025.
If ESPN renews UFC rights, Disney will pay much more in licensing fees than the $4.3 billion it would have paid in 2016. Popular sports broadcast rights fees continue to rise rapidly as they present unique live viewing opportunities for advertisers and draw relatively large audiences.
This calculus has made professional sports and entertainment leagues such as UFC, NASCAR, Formula One and WWE potentially appealing targets for streaming companies as a way to control ever-increasing rights fees for valuable live programming that still…