ONE Championship Secures ESPN Broadcast Deal in Australia & New Zealand

ONE Championship’s events will now be broadcast in Australia and New Zealand via ESPN, the sports network announced today. The multi-year agreement expands the Singapore-based mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion’s reach in the region, replacing previous broadcast deals with Seven in Australia and Fite in New Zealand.

The deal encompasses ONE Championship’s numbered events, monthly Fight Night cards, and its weekly Friday Fights series, which features MMA, Muay Thai, kickboxing, and submission grappling. Select pay-per-view events are not included in the agreement. ESPN’s coverage begins tomorrow with ONE Fight Night 40: Buntan vs. Hemetsberger II, live from Bangkok, Thailand.

In Australia, ESPN is available through the Disney+ platform, pay-TV operator Foxtel, its streaming service Kayo, and Fetch TV. New Zealand viewers can access ONE Championship events on Disney+ and Sky New Zealand, which recently renewed its carriage deal with ESPN.

The partnership with ESPN represents a significant step in ONE Championship’s global expansion strategy. The promotion previously secured broadcast deals with Sky in the UK, U-Next in Japan, and DirecTV in the US in 2023. John Scheler, ONE Championship’s chief operating officer, told Sportcal (GlobalData) last year that international expansion was a key focus, leveraging digital platforms and social media to build fan bases worldwide.

ONE Championship actively utilizes social media, posting frequently across platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube, sharing event promotions, fight highlights, fighter profiles, and behind-the-scenes content. The promotion currently boasts over 1 million followers on X, over 11 million on Instagram, and 11.2 million on YouTube.

Scheler emphasized the importance of adapting to local market preferences, noting that Southeast Asia, where ONE Championship was founded, has a younger, digitally native audience with different content consumption expectations than markets like the United States. He added that the company is focused on maximizing monetization opportunities even as also prioritizing fan base development in newer markets by increasing product visibility.

Meanwhile, the UFC, a rival MMA promotion, has announced a new partnership with food and beverage start-up Foodstory to develop a line of nutritionist-backed, high-protein bars for athletes, and consumers. Research and development will be conducted at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, with a focus on functional ingredients for performance nutrition. Duncan French, Senior Vice President of the UFC Performance Institute, stated that the collaboration combines the institute’s expertise with FoodStory’s product development capabilities to create a protein bar tailored to the needs of combat sport athletes.