In an update on the new home of UFC programming here in the UK following the closure of Setanta Sports last week, iFight365.com understands that an announcement could be made as early as next week.

Several broadcasters have shown an interest in taking over the UFC’s UK television rights, including ESPN, Sky Sports and Bravo.

Terrestrial broadcaster Five also showed some interest but we do not believe they are in the running.

As we reported last week, sources had told us that Bravo were in the frame to take over from Setanta, which was widely expected after Dana White had said prior to UFC 99 that the show would air there had Setanta folded earlier in the month.

Should Bravo not end up winning television rights, it may be that they still get to broadcast UFC 100.

If ESPN, for example, win the rights, they may not be in the position to stage a live broadcast right away. The Disney owned broadcaster is closing in on the purchase of FA Cup football rights as it expands its portfolio in the UK and in the next week or two it will become clearer how the company is planning to schedule its programming going forward. Currently, ESPN have ESPN America and ESPN Classic in the UK.

Its possible that an extra channel will be launched to cater for its newly-won Premier League football rights or the broadcaster may choose to make changes to how ESPN America is aired in the UK. But should ESPN win the UFC rights, personally I think its more likely that should the deal see UFC PPVs air live in the UK that UFC 101 on August would be the first UFC show to air.

Should Bravo win the rights then UFC 100 will almost certainly be broadcast on a tape-delay basis.

Bravo is one of several channels owned by Virgin Media and currently up for sale. As previously reported here at iFight365.com, BSkyB (the parent company of Sky Sports) are interested in purchasing the group of channels and have lodged a bid believed to be around £160million. Should that deal go through, it would speed up Bravo’s move to High Definition, with a Bravo HD giving UK fans the chance to see UFC (and TNA) shows in HD.

Virgin 1 – another channel owned by Virgin Media and also up for sale – could also be in the running but at time of writing we had heard nothing to suggest they had submitted a bid to teh UFC.

Sky Sports’ interest in the UFC is partly due to the HD content. Sky have had interest in UFC for some time but in the past their interest hasn’t been particularly high as some believed it wouldn’t be a major success and would fare no better than Cage Rage.

Whether or not Sky’s bid for the UFC would have any bearing on contract talks with WWE (their current five-year deal is up next January) remains to be seen. Should Sky win the rights to UFC programming, I can see a situation similar to how PPVs work with the WWE: Some would air on Sky Sports as part of the monthly subscription and some would air on a pay-per-view basis via Sky Box Office.

Interesting times ahead and we’ll bring you latest developments as we get them over the next week or so.

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com