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Ellison, Ari & The Power of CBS

Paramount’s seven-year, $7.7 billion UFC deal gave David Ellison a more compelling pitch for Par+ users, while Ari Emanuel’s UFC now has exposure far beyond the ESPN+ app and pay-per-view’s walled garden. But who got a better deal?

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Ari Emanuel
Ari Emanuel added that, for Ellison, having UFC “is [important] to drive things to Paramount+, but for us, we wanted the reach of CBS.” Photo: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Julia Alexander
August 12, 2025

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In retrospect, it wasn’t entirely surprising when news broke yesterday that David Ellison was coughing up $7.7 billion for seven years of exclusive domestic rights to UFC fights on his new baby, Paramount+. After all, Ellison had appeared at multiple UFC events before the deal closed, sitting next to the likes of his father, Larry, President Trump, UFC C.E.O. Dana White, Mark Zuckerberg—and, perhaps most tellingly, Ari Emanuel, an Ellison advisor and the C.E.O. of TKO, which owns the UFC.

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