UFC and WWE parent TKO posts 21% revenue growth as new streaming deal lifts profit

TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of the UFC and WWE, reported third-quarter revenue of $1.360 billion on Wednesday, a 21 percent increase from a year earlier, as a new UFC media-rights agreement that ended the promotion's longtime pay-per-view model drove the steepest profit growth in the company's history. Net income reached $277.9 million, up from $106.8 million in the same quarter of 2025, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization climbed 54 percent to $555.7 million, pushing the adjusted margin to 41 percent from 32 percent a year earlier.

The results, disclosed in an 8-K filing after markets closed on November 4, prompted TKO to raise its full-year guidance for the second time in 2026. The company now expects full-year revenue of $5.790 billion to $5.830 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $2.295 billion to $2.315 billion, each above the targets it had set over the summer.

The numbers behind the surge

UFC was the dominant driver of the quarter. Segment revenue rose $194.0 million, or 60 percent, to $519.2 million, while adjusted EBITDA climbed 72 percent to $285.3 million, lifting the fight promotion's margin to 55 percent from 51 percent. The jump reflects the first full quarter under UFC's new distribution agreement with Skydance, the media company that absorbed Paramount after its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery closed in October. The seven-year, $7.7 billion arrangement, which UFC and Paramount announced in 2025 as a historic media-rights agreement, made Paramount+ the exclusive home of UFC's numbered events and Fight Nights and eliminated the pay-per-view charges that had required fans to pay as much as $79.99 per marquee card.

WWE told a different story. Segment revenue slipped $2.8 million to $399.3 million even as adjusted EBITDA rose $9.4 million to $217.2 million and margin improved to 54 percent from 52 percent, evidence that the division is extracting more profit from a roughly flat top line. WWE's own media overhaul, a five-year agreement that made ESPN's platforms the exclusive U.S. home of all WWE Premium Live Events, including WrestleMania, took effect in September 2025. IMG, the sports-marketing and live-event production business that TKO folded into its operations, added $54.6 million in revenue to reach $391.3 million, with adjusted EBITDA more than doubling to $115.9 million.

Free cash flow totaled $449.9 million for the quarter, and operating cash flow reached $472.1 million. The company ended September with $630.9 million in cash against $4.647 billion of gross debt, figures first aggregated for wrestling and combat-sports audiences by trade outlets covering the release.

A business built on long-term rights contracts

TKO was formed in 2023 when Endeavor Group combined WWE and UFC into a single publicly traded company, later adding IMG and the live-event hospitality business On Location. The structure has let the company stack multiple media-rights cycles — UFC's deal with Skydance, WWE's agreement with ESPN, and WWE's separate arrangement for its weekly programming — so that a large share of revenue is contracted years in advance rather than subject to annual renegotiation.

"Our third quarter performance reflects the secular tailwinds powering live events and experiences around the world," said Mark Shapiro, TKO's president and chief operating officer. "Our business is durable and our fundamentals are solid."

Shapiro added that the "vast majority" of existing revenue is already locked in for the next five to seven years, a point the company has leaned on as it fields investor questions about its roughly $4.6 billion debt load and heavy capital-return program.

Who is affected

The quarter matters most directly to TKO shareholders, who have been the recipients of an aggressive buyback campaign. The company said it has returned more than $1.6 billion to equity holders so far in 2026 through dividends and repurchases, including an $800 million accelerated program completed in July and two separate 10b5-1 buyback plans executed in the spring and fall. About $936.0 million remained under TKO's $3 billion repurchase authorization as of November 4, and the company said it intends to exhaust that balance, funded primarily by additional borrowing and cash on hand, with timing left to management's discretion.

• UFC revenue: $519.2 million, up 60 percent, with adjusted EBITDA up 72 percent to $285.3 million
• WWE revenue: $399.3 million, down 1 percent, with adjusted EBITDA up 5 percent to $217.2 million
• IMG revenue: $391.3 million, up 16 percent, with adjusted EBITDA more than doubling to $115.9 million

Fans are also affected by the restructuring of how both promotions reach audiences. UFC's shift to a subscription-only model on Paramount+ ended a pay-per-view business that had defined the sport for three decades, while WWE's split of marquee events to ESPN and weekly programming to other partners has scattered the promotion's output across more platforms than at any point in its history. Media companies including Skydance and Disney's ESPN, which committed close to $9 billion combined to the two rights packages, are now counting on combat sports and professional wrestling to anchor their direct-to-consumer streaming services.

What comes next

TKO executives used Wednesday's earnings release to frame the quarter as validation of a strategy built on consolidating sports and entertainment properties under one roof while shedding the volatility of one-off pay-per-view sales. With guidance raised twice this year and the bulk of its media contracts not up for renewal for several years, the company's near-term trajectory depends less on dealmaking than on execution: staging its live-event calendar as planned, including events scheduled in the Middle East that the company's guidance assumes will go forward, and continuing to convert locked-in rights fees into the kind of margin expansion it posted in the UFC segment this quarter. TKO said it would provide its next update when it reports fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results early next year.