Canadian UFC fans will stop paying for pay-per-views in 2027. Paramount and TKO Group announced Thursday that Paramount+ will become the exclusive home of all UFC numbered event main cards in Canada for six years, beginning in 2027, with every marquee card included at no extra cost to subscribers.
The deal covers all 13 numbered event main cards per year, the championship-heavy cards traditionally sold as pay-per-views. It expands the seven-year, multi-territory media rights partnership Paramount and TKO Group Holdings first announced in 2025, which already made Paramount+ the UFC’s home across the United States, Latin America and Australia.
Canada was the notable gap in that original agreement. When the U.S. deal was unveiled, Sportsnet retained the Canadian rights it took over in 2024, meaning Canadian fans kept buying individual numbered events at roughly $70 each while American viewers moved to a flat subscription. A single fan tracking all the year’s cards faced a bill approaching $1,000.
“Beginning in 2027, Paramount+ subscribers in Canada will get every UFC Numbered Event main card live, at no additional cost,” UFC President and CEO Dana White said. “Paramount has been an incredible partner that understands the power of UFC, and together we’re going to make it easier than ever for fans in Canada to watch the biggest fights in the sport.”
Rodrigo Mazón, Paramount+’s Head of Direct-To-Consumer in Latin America and Canada, said the expansion lets the service reach a heavily engaged MMA audience while reinforcing what the platform is built around: premium live sports and global entertainment.
A Bigger Test For Paramount’s UFC Bet
The Canadian rollout follows a strong U.S. launch. Paramount said its UFC debut earlier this year became the service’s biggest exclusive live event ever, with more than 10 million households watching over 100 million hours of programming, viewership the company pegged at more than 15 times the average pay-per-view event of the past two years.
UFC has run 37 premier events across 11 Canadian cities since debuting in the country with UFC 83 in 2008. Those cards have featured names like Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones, Jose Aldo, Valentina Shevchenko and Max Holloway.
Paramount and UFC said the first events to stream live in Canada under the new arrangement will be announced later this year.
Dustin Poirier recently revealed that the UFC never explained how fighter pay would change following the promotion’s move to Paramount+ under its landmark $7.7 billion deal.
Under its new streaming agreement, the MMA promotion is set to generate roughly $1.1 billion annually, more than doubling its previous earnings under its media deal with ESPN. Traditionally, UFC fighters have competed under show-and-win contracts, receiving a guaranteed purse to appear and an additional bonus for a victory. On top of that, champions and top-tier stars have historically benefited from a share of pay-per-view revenue.
However, with PPV largely phased out in the United States under the new Paramount+ deal, that lucrative revenue stream is disappearing. As a result, some fighters stand to lose a significant portion of their income. According to “The Diamond”, the UFC has yet to clearly outline how the new pay structure will be adjusted to account for these changes.
During a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show, Dustin Poirier weighed in on the UFC’s new deal with Paramount+, revealing that despite being one of the promotion’s biggest pay-per-view draws, he has been left without clarity on the current fighter pay structure.
The former interim lightweight champion also noted that he has repeatedly pushed UFC executives for answers, but has yet to receive any meaningful response.
“I’ve been asking every show — I ask everybody. I want to know, because my last few years in the UFC, I was… Nobody’s telling me. They’re keeping me in the dark. What the f*ck is that? Keeping me in the dark, man. I was a pay-per-view partner for multiple fights with the UFC.”
Poirier’s concerns extend beyond just his own pay. He questioned whether the UFC, no longer reliant on selling individual PPVs, will remain as committed to consistently putting together the biggest possible matchups.
“How much is the UFC going to put the biggest fights together? Because they don’t need to sell pay-per-views. They’re guaranteed money,” he said.
PPV Points Were The Entire Promise
For years, the UFC’s PPV revenue share served as the primary incentive for fighters to rise through the ranks while accepting relatively modest base pay.
Dustin Poirier confirmed that this structure was often presented during contract negotiations as a motivating reward, positioned as the ultimate payoff at the end of a long path toward a title opportunity.
Earlier this year, former UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor made a similar argument, declaring his UFC contract essentially void because it was structured around PPV sales that no longer exist.
The broader question of how the UFC’s Paramount windfall flows back to fighters remains unanswered. As MMA News analyzed when the deal was announced, fans likely benefit from increased access while fighters risk losing the PPV upside they had counted on.
Poirier retired in July 2025 following a unanimous decision loss to Max Holloway at UFC 318, but still has fights remaining on his UFC contract. For a fighter who headlined multiple pay-per-view events and built his legacy in the UFC over a decade-plus career, not knowing how pay is structured on the back end of that run is a jarring reality.
Conor McGregor has declared his UFC contract is essentially void following the promotion’s massive media rights deal with Paramount, setting the stage for high-stakes negotiations next month.
Conor McGregor said he has to negotiate a new contract with the UFC next month 👀
The former two-division champion made the revelation during a recent live stream, explaining that his existing contract was structured around pay-per-view sales — a model that no longer exists under UFC’s new broadcasting agreement.
“My contract, essentially, is void right now because there’s no more PPV, whereas my contract was based on PPV sales,” McGregor stated. “I’m the highest-generating PPV fighter of all time. The PPV system is done, I’m due a new contract.”
McGregor confirmed he will enter negotiations with the UFC in February, expressing interest in how talks will unfold given the promotion’s dramatically improved financial position.
“They’ve actually got a new deal with Paramount, it’s worth $7.7 billion. So the company has 4xed its profit,” he added. “We’re going into negotiations in February, and I’m very interested to see how it goes.”
The 36-year-old Irishman, who holds a 22-6 professional record, hasn’t competed since suffering a broken leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. He reportedly has two fights remaining on his current deal.
McGregor has been vocal about returning at UFC White House on June 14, previously telling Sean Hannity the fight is a “done deal, signed, delivered.” A potential showdown with Michael Chandler remains the most likely matchup for the historic event.
The contract situation highlights broader questions about fighter compensation in the post-PPV era, with several athletes reportedly restructuring their deals for higher guaranteed payouts under the new Paramount agreement.
The era of $79.99 pay-per-view has officially ended. On January 1, 2026, the UFC completed its historic transition to Paramount+, fundamentally reshaping how millions of fight fans will access the sport for the next seven years and beyond.
The shift represents the most significant structural change to UFC distribution since the sport’s mainstream explosion in the early 2000s. For the first time in the promotion’s history, every numbered UFC event and every Fight Night will be included with a Paramount+ subscription—no additional pay-per-view fees required. It’s a seismic moment for the sport, even if the implications haven’t fully sunk in yet for most fans.
The Deal That Changed Everything
Last August, UFC Secures New Streaming Partner As Paramount Strikes Whopping $7.7 Billion Deal that fundamentally altered the business model. The deal was so significant that it nearly doubled what the UFC had been receiving annually from its previous ESPN arrangement. But the real story isn’t just the money—it’s what it means for accessibility and the future of how combat sports are consumed globally.
Starting January 24 with UFC 324, Paramount+ becomes the exclusive home for all UFC numbered events and Fight Nights in the United States and Latin America. The rollout has already begun, with the UFC’s extensive fight library launching on January 3, drawing immediate buzz across the MMA community for how smoothly the transition is being executed.
What Fans Actually Pay
The math is staggering when you stack it up against the old model. An ESPN pay-per-view event in 2025 cost $79.99. A fan watching 12 numbered events per year was spending nearly $1,000 annually just on PPV. Now, Paramount+ Essential costs $90 per year (starting January 15), while the Premium ad-free tier runs $140 per year. For a casual fan watching the occasional event, it’s a bargain. For hardcore fans watching everything the promotion puts on, it’s transformational.
Even when you factor in other Paramount+ content—over 40,000 full TV episodes, hit movies, live sports beyond UFC—the value proposition is impossible to ignore. The sport is no longer gatekept behind the traditional PPV paywall that has defined UFC economics since the early days of the Fertita era.
The Paramount+ Experience
MMA journalist Ariel Helwani weighed in on the app’s launch, noting that Paramount+ has designed a dedicated UFC hub with impressive organization. Each champion has its own hub, legendary fighters are properly showcased, and navigation is intuitive. The fight library is extensive, though early reports suggest more archival content will be added in phases.
The platform’s architecture matters more than most casual fans realize. A well-designed streaming experience removes friction from consumption. If you can easily find fights, browse by division, and discover historical matchups, you’re more likely to spend time on the platform. Paramount seems to have gotten this right out of the gate.
Select Events on CBS—The Simulcast Strategy
Paramount isn’t the only place to watch. The deal includes simulcasts of select numbered events on CBS, meaning cord-cutter holdouts and traditional television viewers won’t be completely left behind. It’s a smart hedge that acknowledges not everyone has cut the cord or subscribed to streaming services—especially among the older demographic that’s made UFC a mainstream sport.
What This Means for 2026
The Paramount+ transition opens the door to questions about UFC’s future that go beyond just streaming. If the promotion can reliably pull millions of viewers on Paramount+ without the traditional PPV revenue model incentivizing big-name main events, what does that mean for fighter compensation structures? How will the promotion fill its annual calendar? Will the guaranteed Paramount payments create more stability for long-term fighter deals?
The short answer: 2026 will be a revealing year for how the business adapts. Dana White has already committed to an aggressive schedule featuring 43 events (13 numbered, 30 Fight Nights). That’s ambitious, but with Paramount+ guaranteeing income regardless of individual event performance, the pressure to chase mega-PPV numbers is removed.
The Legacy Moment
Twenty-plus years of UFC relying on the PPV model created an entire ecosystem around event nights—sportsbooks adjusting lines, bars strategizing viewership events, families pooling money to watch the big fight. That infrastructure doesn’t disappear overnight, but the incentives that built it are gone.
What replaces it remains to be seen. But on January 1, 2026, when the UFC quietly transitioned to Paramount+, the sport entered a new era. It might take months or years to fully understand what that means. For now, fight fans should simply enjoy the fact that the barrier to entry just collapsed.
The Paramount+ era has begun. Everything else about 2026 flows from that single moment.
