Big changes are coming to the world of live fighting…
Paramount has reached a lucrative $7.7 billion deal to become the exclusive U.S. home of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) that will make all events available to subscribers without pay-per-view.
The seven-year agreement, averaging $1.1 billion annually and increasing in later years, will see Paramount stream all 13 of UFC’s top-billed numbered fights and 30 Fight Nights from 2026 on Paramount+, with selected bouts airing on CBS.
Most notably, the deal scraps UFC’s long-standing pay-per-view model, making premium fights available at no extra cost to subscribers.
UFC’s CEO and president Dana White, a prominent Trump ally, celebrated the news on Monday morning, calling the deal a “huge win”:
The deal comes just weeks after President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) signed off on an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance.
The controversial deal came after Paramount agreed to a $16 million-dollar settlement earlier this year in a lawsuit stemming from a CBS 60 Minutes interview last year with former Vice President Kamala Harris, then the Democratic presidential nominee facing Trump.
This is far from over…
A top Senate Democrat vowed to file federal charges against CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, after the company chose to settle its multimillion-dollar lawsuit with President Trump.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, pulled no punches on Wednesday in his reaction to Paramount’s middle-of-the-night announcement that it was paying President Donald Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit against 60 Minutes.
Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News’s long-running news magazine program was widely seen as frivolous and put pressure on Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance Media, which was being held up by Trump’s FCC launch of probes into CBS broadcasting stations.
Wyden connected the settlement to the merger deal, worth over $8 billion, and threatened federal charges over what he believes amounts to a bribe. “Paramount just paid Trump a bribe for merger approval. When Democrats retake power, I’ll be first in line calling for federal charges. In the meantime, state prosecutors should make the corporate execs who sold out our democracy answer in court, today,” Wyden declared.
CBS parent company Paramount announced on Tuesday that it would pay President Donald Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit against the company over a 2024 interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
The $16 million “includes Mr. Trump’s legal fees and costs and that the money, minus the legal fees, will be paid to Mr. Trump’s future presidential library,” according to a Paramount statement obtained by the New York Times,
Paramount will also “release transcripts of ’60 Minutes’ interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns,” according to the Times, which reported that the settlement would not include an apology to Trump.
While Paramount will pay at least $16 million as part of the settlement, Fox News reported that the total amount of money “could reach north of $30 million” in total.
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“Our Democracy” again. I guess the democrats have their own democracy. We have to settle for a Constitutional Republic. Oh, well…