DUBAI: OSN, a leading pay-TV network in Middle East and North Africa, and UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts promotion, have entered an exclusive long-term broadcast partnership.
Neither the terms of the deal, the first major signing since the MMA promotion was sold to WME-IMG for $4 billion last July, nor its duration were revealed.
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.
Andy Warkman, SVP, Sport & Sports Production, OSN, said: “We are very excited about bringing UFC back to OSN viewers and entering into this long-term partnership. We are listening to our customers, and delivering exclusive content and great value to our new sports channel packages. UFC has seen massive growth and we look forward to working with them and WME | IMG to build on that growth in our region. UFC will be one of our standout offerings in the new sports line up for 2017.
“UFC on OSN will be industry-defining, as for the first time, we will produce localized Arabic content ‘for the region, from the region’ to give UFC fans an unrivalled viewing experience.”
James Elliott, UFC vice president, EMEA, added: “We are pleased to be partnering with OSN once again to bring even more exciting, new and localized content to viewers across the Middle East and Africa. UFC has previously held two very successful events in the UAE and witnessed first-hand the passion of the fans across the region. Together we will bring athlete stories and events to fans like never before, ensuring they don’t miss a minute of the action.”
Also in partnership with UFC, OSN is launching UFC FIGHT PASS within the region. This digital subscription service features the world’s largest combat sports library, including all past UFC events, exclusive programming, access to UFC archives, UFC FIGHT PASS exclusive prelims and select live events.
UFC on OSN is the first in a range of new additions to join the network in 2017, with additional programing set to be announced soon.
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