Professional Fighters League (PFL) is looking for a new home.
For the past six months, PFL has been putting on excellent events — great fights, brutal knockouts, fun matchups, and no more tournaments — but no one is watching them.
That’s because its current television partner, ESPN, has made the product almost impossible to find. There has been little promotion, events have been hard to locate, and much of the content has been tucked behind a new, expensive app that fans have struggled to navigate.
And because of that, PFL is now looking for a new distributor.
PFL has aired on ESPN since 2019; however, its current media rights deal expires at the end of the year. With the exclusive negotiating window now closed and no agreement reached, the fight promotion is free and clear to negotiate with other media companies.
PFL CEO John Martin revealed to Sports Business Journal that the company is speaking with Netflix, Fox and others — while also noting to never say never when it comes to ESPN.
However, the writing appears to be on the wall. It seems “highly unlikely” PFL will continue with “The Worldwide Leader in Sports,” especially because Martin does not believe ESPN has done enough to help grow the promotion.
“I tend to be very direct, but I think what I’m saying is factually correct: They’re not doing anything to help promote and make it easy for our viewers and fans to find us,” Martin told SBJ. “I can’t tell you the number of incoming complaints that people write in — they say, ‘I was actively looking to find your event, and I couldn’t find it, I didn’t know when it was on.’”
“I was hoping the PFL was going to become more important to ESPN, and we haven’t seen that in terms of better scheduling, better network access, and then of course the marketing and promotion, but the tune-in and on-air promotion — and we’ve seen none of that, so that speaks volumes to what their commitment might be to mixed martial arts,” Martin continued.
PFL is putting on genuinely great fights. In all honesty, the product might be the best it has ever been since the promotion’s inception.
But I bet you’re not watching, are you?
That is the problem PFL has to solve with its next media rights deal. The fights are there. The talent is there. The action is there. Now, the promotion needs a platform that actually wants to push it, promote it and make it easy for fans to find.
And with Martin — the former CEO of Turner Broadcasting — now at the helm, PFL at least has someone with the media connections to land the promotion somewhere much better.
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