TKO Holdings CEO Ari Emmanuel and president Mark Shapiro have revealed how a potential broadcasting deal for the UFC with Netflix fell through due to the company only wanting to take on the promotion’s numbered PPV events.

“They didn’t want the volume at the end of the day,” Shapiro told ‘The Town’ podcast. “They wanted just the premium. In that case it was the numbered events, the pay-per-view dates every month.”

That would have left the UFC with at least 30 additional ‘Fight Night’ events that would also have to find a new home after the conclusion of this year’s ESPN+ deal.

“We would have had to do what the NBA did and break up the package,” Emanuel said. “Mark and I were discussing that, actually I like the word discussing, what really happened fighting about that the whole time.”

A potential plan was hatched that they’d agree to put the premium events on Netflix, with Paramount+ taking the Fight Night shows, but then Paramount upped the ante with an alternative offer.

“We at first were hoping that Paramount would take the 30 [UFC Fight Night events] and we just do the premium with Netflix,” Shapiro said. “Until CBS ultimately said forget it, we want the whole thing.”

It was a big decision to go down that route, particularly as it means scrapping their PPV business model entirely, but the fact the Paramount+ deal weighing in at a whopping $7.7 billion over the next seven years made it an easier one to go through with.

“They were disappointed,” Emanuel said regarding Netflix’s reaction to missing out on the UFC deal. “Let’s just be very clear, [Netflix chief content officer] Bella [Bajaria] and [co-CEO] Ted [Sarandos] have been incredible to Mark and I and the agency and TKO with boxing.

“They are incredible executives, but at the end of the day, [Paramount CEO] David [Ellison] and Gerry Cardinale and Jeff [Shell] and Larry [Ellison] said ‘studio, streaming and live sports.’ They want to be in that space so then they came to us and said ‘here’s what we want.’ OK, great.”