Conor McGregor’s marquee instrumentality to the UFC is the latest UFC lawsuit to enactment down the Paramount+ paywall.
In August 2025, UFC reached an exclusive seven-year, $7.7 cardinal rights deal with Paramount successful the United States. The statement ended UFC’s pay-per-view model, moving each events to the Paramount+ streaming service, with prime simulcasts connected CBS.
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CBS simulcast the last hr of the prelims and the archetypal hr of the main paper for UFC 326 successful March and UFC 327 successful April. Since then, however, Paramount has kept its biggest cards exclusive to Paramount+, which includes UFC Freedom 250, held successful June connected the White House lawn.
UFC 329, which features the instrumentality of Conor McGregor, volition erstwhile again diagnostic each unrecorded enactment exclusively connected the Paramount+ streaming service. CBS volition aerial a primetime peculiar connected Friday, however, featuring sum of McGregor and Max Holloway’s weigh-in. Front Office Sports was archetypal to study the Paramount+ exclusivity.
Viewership for UFC Freedom 250 whitethorn beryllium a bully spot to commencement to recognize wherefore CBS, which is airing NCIS: Sydney and 48 Hours instead, volition not simulcast immoderate unrecorded action. Freedom 250 averaged 7 cardinal viewers connected Paramount+. That is connected par with the NBA’s biggest regular-season windows. The most-watched NBA crippled connected Christmas Day successful 2025, featuring the San Antonio Spurs against the Oklahoma City Thunder, averaged 6.7 cardinal viewers connected ABC and ESPN.
That is apt 1 of the strongest unrecorded sports audiences ever connected Paramount+, whose adjacent astir salient exclusive sporting lawsuit is the aboriginal rounds of the UEFA Champions League.
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Putting games over-the-air is large for expanding exposure, but if the lawsuit is already popular, a somewhat smaller assemblage of caller Paramount+ subscribers is much invaluable than much radical watching for escaped connected CBS. For its part, UFC Freedom 250 resulted successful an 184% summation successful Paramount+ downloads connected the time starring up to the lawsuit compared to the time before.
If UFC 329 proves to beryllium different beardown gully connected Paramount+, that would beryllium a immense occurrence for this strategy. Less salient events whitethorn inactive person CBS simulcasts, but marquee events that already person involvement should stay streaming exclusives.
The station Why Paramount is keeping Conor McGregor’s UFC instrumentality disconnected CBS appeared archetypal connected Awful Announcing.
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