The Town with Matthew Belloni Paramount’s UFC Knockout and Amazon’s Podcast Flameout
31 snips
Aug 11, 2025 
Lucas Shaw, a Bloomberg reporter known for his insights into media, joins Ashley Carman, a podcast and music industry expert, to dive into UFC’s monumental $7.7 billion deal with Paramount. They discuss the strategic choice of Paramount for UFC’s broadcasting rights and analyze the implications for the media landscape. The conversation shifts to Amazon's integration of Wondery into Audible, highlighting challenges in podcast monetization. Lastly, they debate contenders who might challenge Joe Rogan's podcast supremacy in this evolving market.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Ellison's Surprise Big Bid
- David Ellison surprised the market by outbidding much larger rivals to secure UFC rights for Paramount+.
- The bid signals a willingness to spend aggressively to drive streaming growth and send a market signal.
How Paramount Plans To Pay
- Paramount expects to fund the deal via new subscribers, reduced churn, and ad sales across streaming and CBS.
- The company plans to backload returns and cut costs elsewhere to help pay for rights over time.
Content Tradeoffs To Fund UFC
- Paramount may reduce or reallocate scripted content spend short-term to absorb the UFC rights cost.
- The company could lean on CBS linear and make fewer or cheaper originals to balance budgets.