Middle Eastern pay-television operator OSN has agreed a multi-year deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship granting it exclusive rights to the mixed martial arts promotion in the Middle East and North Africa.
The new partnership ensures all UFC content including live events, shoulder programming and The Ultimate Fighter reality series will be available exclusively for OSN subscribers.
In partnership with the UFC, OSN will also launch the UFC Fight Pass digital subscription service within the region. The platform features the world’s largest combat sports library, including all past UFC events, exclusive programming, access to UFC archives, exclusive preliminary events and select live action.
The OSN deal marks the first rights agreement signed under the tenure of the WME-IMG agency, the UFC’s new owners. WME-IMG acquired the UFC in July through a deal said to be worth approximately $4bn (€3.7bn).
Andy Warkman, senior vice-president of sport and sports production at OSN, said: “UFC on OSN will be industry-defining, as for the first time, we will produce localised Arabic content ‘for the region, from the region’ to give UFC fans an unrivalled viewing experience.”