Shanghai

The world’s leading mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, UFC®, and China’s leading sport media provider, PPTV Sports have announced a five year exclusive rights agreement.

The deal gives PPTV rights to stream all of UFC’s events live and without delay, bringing Chinese fans unprecedented access to the world’s best MMA athletes as they compete in the world’s most intimidating arena. PPTV has also launched a dedicated section of its main portal bringing fans the latest UFC news 24 hours a day.

In addition to live UFC events, fans will also enjoy access to all of UFC’s original programming such as The Ultimate Fighter, Countdown to UFC, UFC Primetime and Road to the Octagon on PPTV. Offline, the partnership between UFC and PPTV will extend to year round joint staging of fan events, promotional activations and fighter visits, bringing Chinese fans unparalleled access to the world’s fastest growing sport and Asia’s premier MMA organization.

“China has always been a huge priority for UFC and our aim has always been to steadily increase our reach and cultivate more fans in China,” said Kenneth Berger, UFC Executive Vice President and General Manager of Asia. “This new five year partnership is a huge step in the right direction for us. We hope to not only engage with fans more in the years ahead, but also as we grow the sport here, to see more Chinese athletes rising up to compete in the world’s most competitive Octagon®.”

“PPTV Sports is glad to work with UFC®, the world’s top MMA brand. The collaboration in the last three years has resulted in the development of the UFC® brand in the Chinese market with ever increasing audiences and fans. We are very honored to renew the deal, and expand our rights to become exclusive over the next five years. Moving forward, PPTV will be providing better media support to UFC content with live streaming of key fights and VOD services to all UFC videos. Apart from media rights, PPTV is also going to be working closely with the UFC to market and promote the brand in China” said Stephen Zhang, General Manager of PPTV Sports.

PPTV’s stream of all UFC live events can be found on http://sports.pptv.com as they happen with replays available on-demand right after.

