The data coming out of Paramount+ since UFC content arrived on the platform has drawn the attention of executives for two reasons: the viewers are dramatically younger, and they are already watching something specific when they land on the service. That something is South Park.
According to sources, Efrain Miron, head of content strategy and licensing for Paramount direct-to-consumer, has been monitoring those numbers in real time.
“One of the things that’s been really cool about seeing this UFC audience show up, which again is not a monolith, but it’s the audience so far that has shown up… We have found that on average, the folks watching UFC on Paramount+ are 15 years younger than our average audience before UFC, so for us that’s a massive unlock,” Miron says.
“We also then observe what they are watching when they show up on the platform. So far, some of those signals have been really interesting. You have a lot of crossover with the South Park audience, so that’s been interesting for us,” he said. “So then we take all that information and we say, OK, how do we make sure that when this audience shows up so they’re getting the right recommendations on the service?”
The crossover is not entirely surprising once you consider who both properties attract. UFC and South Park share a younger, predominantly male audience with an appetite for content that does not apologize for itself.
For Paramount, which historically skewed older in its viewership, the demographic shift represents a significant change: not just in who is watching, but in what else they want to watch.
This audience data is arriving at a moment when Paramount is preparing to broadcast the biggest single event in UFC history, one that could accelerate these trends further. On June 14, UFC Freedom 250 will take place on the South Lawn of the White House.
The expectation, shared by UFC CEO Dana White and Paramount+ alike, is that the visibility of the occasion will introduce the sport to millions of viewers who have never tuned into a professional bout before.
The idea began not in a boardroom but on the floor of Madison Square Garden. On November 16, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump attended UFC 309 alongside Elon Musk, Kid Rock, and incoming Cabinet members Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. After the evening ended, a brief exchange between Trump and White set everything in motion.
“He leaned over to me and says, ‘We should do an event at the White House,'” White recalls. “I said, ‘Yes, we should.’ I didn’t know what he meant. I was thinking maybe there’s some room that he’s thinking about where we’d have it. He’s like, ‘No, we’re gonna do it outside on the South Lawn.'”
White put any doubt about Trump’s intentions to rest quickly. “He’s funny, but he’s not a joke around kind of guy,” he says. “Literally, when he says something, consider it done.”
The cost of following through has been substantial. Mark Shapiro, president and COO of TKO Group Holdings, told Wall Street analysts in February that the event would run “upwards of $60 million,” with TKO set to absorb approximately $30 million in losses even after sponsorship deals with Ram Trucks, Crypto.com, and Monster Energy.
White is pragmatic about it. “Losing money is never fun. I did that for quite a few years in the early days, but you have to jump on an opportunity like this, no matter what it costs you,” he says.
Shapiro has framed the expense in terms of long-range positioning rather than short-term returns. “We will not profit from the White House event independently. We will not be making money on America’s 250th anniversary,” he said. “This is an investment for the long term. This is about earned media.”
He continued, “This is about sampling, new fans, casual viewers, a spectacle on a stage that will ultimately expand our audience, our viewership and our success on Paramount+. We see this once-in-a-lifetime stage as a strategic investment to drive subscriber acquisition at Paramount+, massive audience sampling for the UFC overall, and Super Bowl-like earned media across the globe.”
Knowing that UFC viewers on Paramount+ are already gravitating toward South Park gives the platform a concrete tool: if an incoming audience is self-selecting toward specific content, recommendation engines can be calibrated accordingly, increasing the likelihood that new subscribers stay long after the event ends.
White has also pointed to the access advantages of the Paramount+ deal as a core part of the growth story. “When we were on ESPN, we were behind two paywalls. You had to pay for ESPN+, and then you had to pay for the pay-per-view,” he says. “With the Paramount+ deal, it costs less for the year than it did for one pay-per-view, and you get everything UFC, plus you get all the other great programming.”
The two-day event will include a free fan festival at the Ellipse adjacent to the White House grounds, with Zac Brown Band headlining on June 13 and 85,000 tickets already distributed to attendees. Weigh-ins and a press conference are scheduled at the Lincoln Memorial.
Tickets to the event itself are by invitation only. Trump holds roughly 1,200, White holds 300, TKO CEO Ari Emanuel holds 400, and the remainder are reserved for members of the military.
