The NBC Sports Group and the World Series of Fighting have reached a multi-year agreement to extend the current television contract between the two companies and the new contract will call for the mixed martial arts promotion to air on NBC.
The new contract was officially announced in a press release on Monday.
“We are excited to extend and broaden our partnership to continue to bring World Series of Fighting’s unique brand of elite mixed martial arts to our viewers,” said Jon Miller, President of Programming for NBC and NBCSN.
The multi-year extension will broaden the partnership and will call for the World Series of Fighting to produce fourteen live events this year. The debut for the organization on NBC will be on July 5th and will air from 4 p.m. ET to 6 p.m. ET. The second World Series of Fighting fight card to air on NBC will come on December 27th and it’s unclear at this point if that will be an afternoon card as well.
“We have enjoyed tremendous success as a young company with the great people at NBCSG, and we are thrilled to be continuing on this journey with them for years to come,” World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo said. “World Series of Fighting will continue to put on premier MMA events around the world with some of the world’s best fighters, and we’re so proud to be able to share it with all of NBC and NBCSN’s viewers.”
Earlier this year, TheMMAReport.com reported that the NBC Sports Group was not paying a rights fee to the World Series of Fighting to broadcast their fight cards. Following the announcement of the new deal today, TheMMAReport.com learned that the NBC Sports Group will continue to not pay a rights fee to the World Series of Fighting.
The next World Series of Fighting event will take place on June 21st at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and will feature title fights in the middleweight, featherweight, and women’s strawweight divisions.