TNT Sports has been a household name in the American sports landscape for decades. From 1989 until the end of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, TNT has been a rightsholder to its top sports property, the NBA. This weekend, the NBA Playoffs began, and with them, so did the final postseason for TNT Sports with the league.
In 2024, TNT lost the rights to the NBA after being outbid by Amazon Prime Video, the current North American rightsholder to ONE Championship, with the network’s effort to match Amazon’s offer being denied. This has left quite the gaping hole in TNT Sports’ portfolio.
Not to be deterred by the loss of Adam Silver’s league, Warner Bros-Discovery, which oversees TNT and its sports division, successfully bid for the rights to the French Open tennis tournament in the United States beginning this year, along with securing the rights to two opening-round games in the College Football Playoff annually, sublicensed from ESPN with broadcasters from the latter network working the games.
Could TNT Sports Nab At Least Some UFC Rights?
Speaking of ESPN, 2025 marks the final year in its current seven-year exclusive US media rights deal with MMA’s top promotion, the UFC. This deal was scheduled to have lapsed at the close of business in 2023, but was extended by two years just two months into the life of the contract.
During the April 12 UFC 314 post-fight press conference, UFC CEO Dana White spoke on the impending end of the media rights cycle with the Disney-owned cabler. ESPN’s exclusive negotiation period with the UFC ended at the close of business on April 15.
“When the window opens, we’ll obviously start talking to lots of different people, and we’ll see, we’ll see what the options are out there,” White told the media assembled backstage at Kaseya Center. “We’ve said this every time, there could be a time where we end up on several different networks like all other sports do.”
White mentioned that he has no ill will toward ESPN if the parties don’t come to a new agreement.
“I like ESPN,” he said. “We had a bit of a rocky start, which is normal in any relationship, but we’re in a great place with ESPN.”
TNT Sports Already Owns UFC Rights in United Kingdom and Ireland
If, by chance, a pact between TNT and the UFC comes to pass, it wouldn’t be the first time that the two brands have agreed on a deal. TNT’s United Kingdom and Ireland sports division, the former BT Sport, has rights to the UFC.
BT Sport initially secured the United Kingdom and Ireland media rights to the promotion in the spring of 2013, extending the pact several times, most recently in May of 2022. Meanwhile, back in America, TNT has expressed that they’d like to work out a deal with the UFC. Luis Silberwasser, TNT Sports CEO, said that the promotion is on their radar, along with Formula One racing.
“We like both,” Silberwasser mentioned. “UFC is a fantastic property and has piqued our interest. Formula One, as well. Given our experience with sports internationally, we know the passion for Formula One, and we know that in this market, it has grown and it has great potential, as well.”
TNT Sports-UFC Relationship Can Work
Dana White’s comments about the UFC potentially splitting up its US media rights deal between several platforms make the most sense in the case of TNT. Warner Bros-Discovery wouldn’t necessarily need to commit to the whole package of events from the UFC starting in 2026.
Ideally, if the UFC and ESPN do decide to part company at year’s end, TNT Sports would secure the Fight Night cards, shoulder programming, and a weekly studio show. While the NBA schedule runs from October to June, the UFC offers a 12-month itinerary.
Aside from boxing, no other sports carry a catalog of events from January to December. The UFC slate doesn’t even have to be on TNT itself, either. If you’ve been watching any sports presentation on a Warner Bros-Discovery owned network that isn’t the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, they’ll carry the TNT Sports banner throughout the event.
Fight Nights could be on TruTV, along with shoulder programming. TBS could run pay-per-view undercard fights, while Netflix could take the main cards of such premium events.
Final Thoughts
This leads us to ask one simple question as we close out this piece: Would you like to see UFC events on TNT Sports? Let us know in the comments.
