Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, has renewed its broadcast deal in France with RMC Sport, the pay-TV channel owned by media and telecoms group Altice.
The exclusive, long-term extension will cover France, Monaco, and French overseas territories.
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RMC Sport will continue to broadcast all main cards from every UFC event live, as well as the preliminary cards for all numbered events and shows in which a French athlete is competing.
This is in addition to over 200 hours of non-live, archive, and supporting UFC programming such as UFC Countdown.
RMC Sport will also produce original films, exclusive interviews, and magazine programming across their platforms, including TV, digital, Twitch, and podcasts.
UFC features several French athletes including Ciryl Gane, Benoit Saint-Denis, Manon Fiorot, and Nassourdine Imavov. Both live and replayed coverage of their fights will be shown on RMC Sport.
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By GlobalDataRMC was the first network to officially benefit from the ruling made by France’s media regulator, the CSA, in November 2021, that MMA can now be televised in the country, albeit under certain restrictions.
MMA had been banned from French TV screens since 2005, with the CSA considering that the sport undermined "the dignity of the participants," was "likely to seriously harm the physical, mental or moral development of the minors," and was "contrary to safeguarding public order.”
UFC staged its first event in France last September. The event was also shown free-to-air by digital terrestrial channel L’Equipe through a sub-licensing deal with RMC.
Arthur Dreyfuss, chief executive of Altice France, said: “RMC Sport is proud of this long-term partnership with UFC. The renewed trust and the expanded partnership with UFC, which we have broadcast since 2014, shows once more that RMC Sport is more than ever the leading broadcaster in MMA.
“We are happy that our subscribers will be able to enjoy all the action from the world’s best MMA organization exclusively on RMC Sport.”
Lawrence Epstein, UFC chief operating officer, added: “France is such an important market for UFC, and RMC Sport have been our partners for many years, working with us to help grow the sport and our fanbase.
“It was a huge highlight for the company to host our first event in Paris in September last year and bring the best of MMA to a sold-out Accor Arena. We look forward to working alongside our partners at RMC Sport to continue providing the best of MMA to our fans.”
