I'll sound like a crazy person for this, but I cannot see this as anything but a bribe payment from Skydance to Trump's "sports" friends at TKO. $7 Billion for UFC is an insane overvaluation. www.cnbc.com/2025/08/11/p...
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I feel like UFC is so much less popular than it was 10 years ago. Feels like a NASCAR or Arena Football sport type of thing where everyone was insanely into it for 5 or 6 years and then it just fell off. Maybe it picked up enough quieter fans along the way it's still good? But yeah 7 billion is nuts
aug 11, 2025, 1:29 pm • 5 0 • view
I think one part of it is that they oversaturated themselves. You could get guys to buy fight cards when it was one every month or 2. Now UFC has more dates than the Nascar calendar.
aug 11, 2025, 1:31 pm • 8 0 • view
This also meant fans knew every fighter and it was a big deal when someone new debuted. There were coherent storylines. Now it’s just a random glob of dudes.
aug 11, 2025, 1:42 pm • 5 0 • view
I use to know the name of every UFC Champion up to when they originally had the three women's divisions. Now I can't even name one champion.
aug 11, 2025, 1:45 pm • 1 0 • view
refusing to pay their best fighters at their peaks so they all end up leaving to cash in on boxing for a couple years has also helped tank the company. add in too many events and the cards absolutely suck.
aug 11, 2025, 1:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Too many events and the cards suck? Are you sure we’re talking about the same TKO?
aug 11, 2025, 1:46 pm • 0 0 • view
no I'm with you. that's exactly what this looks like
aug 11, 2025, 1:30 pm • 2 0 • view
Look I am an OG South Park viewer and $7b for something that people can bet their lives on is a fairer price than $2.3b for fucking South Park
aug 11, 2025, 1:47 pm • 2 0 • view
South Park at least has a contractual raise built in since Paramount has owned it since the beginning so while it seems insane in market terms in TV terms of escalating contract rights from season to season plus the add in of the archive it makes SOME sense.
aug 11, 2025, 1:49 pm • 0 0 • view
I also heard a podcast that said that South Park is like top-5 in all time streaming so I get it. Just saying they could have given them $2b and kept Colbert
aug 11, 2025, 1:52 pm • 1 0 • view
There’s simply no way to pretend Colbert had anything to do with money.
aug 11, 2025, 1:53 pm • 4 0 • view
Dave used to joke about the budget all of the time on his run. It was a great shtick. RETVRN (It was never about the money)
aug 11, 2025, 1:59 pm • 3 0 • view
Conan "spending" all of NBCs money in his final days was superb late night I cannot imagine how he would handle something like this
aug 11, 2025, 2:01 pm • 5 0 • view
for real? I guess longevity certainly juices the numbers too so I shouldn't be that surprised but South Park is one of those things I've never truly been in on and I forget about it
aug 11, 2025, 2:08 pm • 2 0 • view
I’m betting some of it is the platform that Comedy Central always has been. They were very early iirc to the “it’s streaming on our website the next day” concept and because it was cable that was the only way in the 00’s for a lot of people to watch.
aug 11, 2025, 2:12 pm • 2 0 • view
even that was probably 08/09 though. which is still right there with Netflix streaming so not a real head start. I think the bigger part of it is that they've had a big library during the entire streaming era
aug 11, 2025, 2:18 pm • 2 0 • view
oh yeah they had 10 seasons or something like that ready to go. and while yes it was similar timefame to the start of netflix, it was free. I remember watching the daily show and southpark on my laptop in between classes when I had an hour cuz it was free.
aug 11, 2025, 2:34 pm • 2 0 • view
I was a HUGE South Park fan probably until 2007 or so, when it was on Max I’d get a nostalgia hit from the first five seasons or so but I haven’t watched anything new for AGES I guess you could say I grew out of it (it started when I was in 7th grade)
aug 11, 2025, 3:17 pm • 1 0 • view
I have a visceral memory of being in middle school and my mom's chef boyfriend being really excited to show it to me and being really deflated when it wasn't like I had heard The Beatles for the first time
aug 11, 2025, 3:25 pm • 2 0 • view
(But yeah it’s an obvious hand-slap)
aug 11, 2025, 1:48 pm • 1 0 • view
I thought the same thing this morning, but thought, "You sound unhinged." Skydance owners (Larry Ellison and his failson) are big backers of El Presidente Taco.
aug 11, 2025, 4:03 pm • 0 0 • view
To sound like an even crazier person, I don’t think it’s just UFC. I think there has been a concentrated effort to integrate more right wing ideology society. Netflix paying certain comedians millions of dollars for specials, UFC and WWE’s media rights deals, and of course podcasts.
aug 11, 2025, 2:00 pm • 2 0 • view
It’s a good think Paramount isn’t bleeding cash and can afford to waste money on this
aug 11, 2025, 1:36 pm • 2 0 • view
Story also notes that they're ending PPV buying when they leave ESPN, a quiet acknowledgement that buy rates had crashed over the last couple years.
aug 11, 2025, 1:26 pm • 30 0 • view
Glad they’ll be off ESPN, ditch Pat McAfee while they’re at it
aug 11, 2025, 1:45 pm • 2 0 • view
Endeavor/tko money laundering machines forever go brrrrrrrrr
aug 11, 2025, 1:27 pm • 7 0 • view