ESPN is reportedly in superior negotiations to amass UFC Struggle Cross, the Final Combating Championship’s on-demand streaming service, in keeping with a number of sources, plus the WWE Vault. The discussions middle on integrating Struggle Cross’s intensive archive and choose reside programming into ESPN’s direct-to-consumer platform ESPN+. Concurrently, ESPN is exploring rights to WWE’s Vault channel, a curated repository of basic content material.
ESPN Seeking to Buy UFC Struggle Cross and WWE Vault
ESPN’s curiosity in UFC Struggle Cross comes because the community accelerates its shift towards digital distribution. Since launching ESPN+ in 2018, ESPN has steadily expanded its streaming footprint, including fight sports activities content material to its portfolio. Beneath the present settlement with UFC, ESPN holds unique U.S. streaming and linear rights via the top of 2025, together with pay-per-view occasions on ESPN+ and 42 reside UFC combat nights yearly. Next, the UFC might be on Paramount+ as its dwelling.
Buying Struggle Cross would grant ESPN on-demand entry to the UFC’s full combat library – greater than 3,000 bouts courting again to the promotion’s early days – and everlasting reside rights to marquee occasions, bolstering its content pipeline.
Negotiations are reportedly superior however not finalized, with key sticking factors together with rights charges, income sharing, and the remedy of Struggle Cross’s present subscriber base. Analysts anticipate that folding Struggle Cross into ESPN’s DTC app might drive important subscriber development, given the platform’s established viewers and advertising and marketing attain.
Blake Avignon Explained:
“BREAKING: ESPN is in energetic talks to amass UFC Struggle Cross, a number of sources affirm. The plan is to fold the archive and choose reside content material into ESPN’s new DTC app. Discussions are superior however not finalized, with ESPN additionally eyeing the WWE Vault.”
The community can also be eyeing the WWE Vault, which options curated highlights, basic matches, and behind-the-scenes documentaries. WWE and ESPN recently introduced a multiyear partnership for pay-per-view occasions and choose reside specials, valued at $325 million per 12 months starting in 2026. In that deal, ESPN secured streaming rights to main occasions similar to WrestleMania and SummerSlam, whereas expressing curiosity in WWE’s archival library as soon as present contracts permit. Buying each the UFC and WWE archives would place ESPN’s DTC service because the premier hub for fight sports activities fanatics.
These strikes happen in opposition to the backdrop of a fiercely aggressive media-rights panorama. With Paramount+ set to grow to be UFC’s unique U.S. broadcast dwelling in 2026 beneath a $7.7 billion, seven-year deal, ESPN is looking for to increase its MMA footprint earlier than that transition. For WWE, the shift from Peacock to ESPN’s new platform marks a strategic realignment, tapping ESPN’s sports-centric model to achieve a broader viewers.
International
If ESPN acquires UFC Fight Pass, it is unlikely the service will disappear internationally. Instead, Fight Pass is expected to be fully integrated into ESPN’s direct-to-consumer app within the U.S. market, while remaining a standalone platform abroad, similar to how WWE Network content was folded into Peacock in the U.S. but continues independently in other regions.
ESPN could also explore licensing Fight Pass rights regionally or internationally to maximize reach and revenue outside the U.S. This approach allows ESPN to strengthen its domestic offering without disrupting Fight Pass’s ongoing international subscription base, which has been growing steadily thanks to localized versions and targeted marketing in multiple countries.
Should the negotiations succeed, ESPN’s DTC app will offer an unprecedented depth of combat sports content. Subscribers could access UFC’s entire fight history, live fight cards, pay-per-view events, and WWE’s vault – all under one subscription.
