Dana White is considering ditching ESPN as a UFC broadcast partner when the current deal expires.
The mixed martial arts promotion has been tied to ESPN since inking a $1.5 billion deal in 2019.
But that is up this year and chances of renewing are understood to be decreasing.
White is said to have been furious with broadcaster over a number of technical issues and glitches that have hampered recent events.
This includes as recently as UFC 313, where viewers were struggling to buy the event headlined by Alex Pereira’s defeat to Magomed Ankalaev.
As a result, it appears White could be looking to take his business elsewhere.
It has been reported that ESPN are also unhappy with pay-per-view numbers having ‘decreased’ in recent months.
And new information published from the New York Post’s Eric Richter has suggested that streaming service Netflix will ‘almost definitely’ be the broadcaster of the UFC once their deal with ESPN expires.
Should the promotion elect to move to Netflix, it could see them abandon their traditional pay-per-view model to move towards the price of a regular subscription.
The streaming service has shown new commitment to combat sports as of recently.
Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson drew in more than 100 million viewers when the boxing fight became their first on the platform.
They have also recently acquired WWE in global territories, as well as acquiring WWE Raw exclusively in the US in a deal worth around $5 billion.
UFC is under the TKO banner alongside WWE, with their chief Nick Khan having negotiated the deal for the platform to feature on the Netflix service.
This could in turn benefit White in any negotiation with Netflix over the deal, given they already share a working relationship with TKO.
When addressing the possibility of a new TV rights deal, White insisted there will be big interest.
He said on Dan Rafael’s podcast: “And the question is Who’s it going to be? Is it gonna be Amazon, YouTube, Disney? The list goes on and on.
“That’s who the players will be. But what’s fascinating right now is when you look in, you got NFL, college football, NBA college basketball, you got the NHL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, you got the UFC, WWE, and tennis.
“All these sports are looking for rights deals right now, right? I always go out and figure out how to build s*** without the help of anybody.
“That’s what I do. Everybody is looking for a TV deal. Everybody is looking for money.
“I always try to figure out how do I take my thing to the next level and figure it out on my own.”
For now, White’s promotion remains with the UFC, but it is expected an announcement over a TV deal could be made in the coming months.
Joining Netflix could be a huge coup for the UFC, given the huge 250 million subscriber base they have globally.
It could also then lead to his new boxing promotion under the TKO banner being brought on to the platform.
The new league was announced in a partnership alongside Saudi chief Turki Alalshikh.
