Mixed martial arts promoter the Ultimate Fighting Championship will get improved coverage in Australia under a new two-year multi-channel rights agreement covering 2012 and 2013 with News Corporation-owned pay-television broadcaster Foxtel.
News Corp’s jointly-owned Fuel TV channel, which has broadcast the UFC in Australia since 2007, will remain the main channel for UFC content. Under the new deal, there will be additional coverage of UFC across the Fox Sports, FX and Main Event channels.
FX will show first-run and archive series of The Ultimate Fighter show including the UFC’s first locally commissioned series ‘The Ultimate Fighter: Australia vs UK – The Smashes’. Fox Sports will for the first time screen live UFC fights. At least six live events per year will air on Fox Sports’ primary channels and will feature the best fights available outside the pay-per-view events. PPV channel Main Event will continue to show live coverage of every major PPV event.
Fox Sports Australia chief executive Patrick Delany said: “The UFC has become a major player in sports entertainment in Australia. Its growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. In the US, the popularity rivals the ‘big four’ of the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB and the new partnership with Foxtel will see the UFC explode here in Australia.”
UFC president, Dana White, added: “The UFC is the most exciting sports organisation in the world and Foxtel is the No.1 entertainment company in Australia, so this is a perfect match. Australia is pound-for-pound the No.1 UFC market for its size, and we are now going to give them more UFC content than ever before.”