Last month, Netflix signed a 10-year, $5 billion deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to become the exclusive home of WWE. Living In a separate deal last September, NBCUniversal renewed its contract starting in 2025. smack down It acquired the assets on USA Network in a five-year media rights deal reportedly worth $1.4 billion. With these changes in media rights, as well as increased interest and gate revenue, wrestling promotions have sought to position themselves for long-term success. Furthermore, it is currently under the umbrella of TKO Group Holdings, a listed company created through a merger with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
“TKO is off to a strong start following record financial results in both the UFC and WWE in 2023,” Ariel Emanuel, chief executive officer of TKO Group Holdings and Endeavor, said in a statement. Stated. “We secured Anheuser-Busch as the official beer partner of the UFC, signed a groundbreaking deal to bring WWE Raw to Netflix starting in 2025, and expanded our international footprint in a key growth market. We believe that the combination of these businesses and TKO's capabilities will drive sales growth and margin expansion, generate meaningful free cash flow, and deliver sustainable long-term value to our shareholders. I am more confident than ever that we can do it.”
The company recently reported its fourth quarter financial results, revealing record financial prosperity for the UFC, along with data for the entirety of 2023, which marks the company's 30th anniversary. UFC's revenue increased 13% to $1.3 billion, and adjusted EBITDA increased 11% to $756 million. WWE also performed well in his three-month financial results for which data was reported, with revenue of $331.2 million and adjusted EBITDA of $141 million.
UFC media revenue fell 2.7% sequentially to $168.1 million, but increased more than 9.5% for the year to $870.6 million overall. The company attributed the profit to a $76.2 million increase in both media rights and content fees due to higher contract revenue and additional pay-per-view events in the prior calendar year. The UFC's existing media rights deal with ESPN expires in 2025, but the two sides reportedly plan to discuss a new deal.
WWE has not previously reported revenue as it is a privately held company, but the promotion generated $212.2 million in media revenue last quarter. For the full year, which includes the first three quarters before the TKO merger, the company had sales of $1.3 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $553.1 million, both increases year over year.
Overall, TKO generated revenue of $614 million in the last quarter and $1.68 billion for the year. His adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $809.1 million, demonstrating continued growth across the two facilities.
