UFC Owners Discuss Expansion to HBO and Other Platforms as Part of Paramount-Warner Bros. Partnership

You might see a UFC special on HBO sooner rather than later.

Paramount-Skydance recently completed a massive $110 billion acquisition from Warner Bros. and all of the company’s assets, including networks like HBO, TBS, TNT and many others. While the UFC’s broadcast deal with Paramount that began in early 2026 moved the majority of the organization’s programming to the Paramount+ streaming service, this merger opens the door to all kinds of possibilities.

TKO Group Holdings President and COO Mark Shapiro revealed Wednesday that discussions are already underway about the merger and potential expansion of the UFC to different networks.

“We are in conversation with Skydance about how best to maximize viewership on the Skydance platform,” Shapiro said during a TKO financial call. “We have a great partnership with the whole team there. I’ve worked with David Berson, who’s the head of Skydance Sports, since our days at ESPN. He’s super creative.

“We’ll be maximizing HBO, TNT, Paramount+, CBS, all in the name of expanding eyeballs, growing viewers, growing audiences and growing engagement. Fully strategically aligned with Skydance and, frankly, they’ve made a huge investment in the UFC, and we want to see that we help them maximize their returns.”

The UFC has signed a massive seven-year, $7.7 billion deal to move from ESPN to Paramount in early 2026 while simultaneously eliminating pay-per-view broadcasts, with each event now broadcast exclusively on the Paramount+ streaming service.

Although the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. is completed, the full integration of all the different properties is still in progress. Eventually, Paramount+ is expected to merge with HBO Max, which will immediately increase overall subscriptions and viewership.

It’s unclear to what extent Paramount plans to feature UFC on the various platforms, but it obviously seems like this type of programming could happen in the near future.