Report: ESPN secures UFC TV rights, increasing new deal to $1.5B

ESPN and the UFC have reportedly agreed to add a television rights package to their new deal, which will add 15 more events and increase the value of the contract to $1.5 billion over five years, according to Variety's Andrew Wallenstein.

The UFC originally announced the "groundbreaking" deal with ESPN earlier this month which included 15 12-fight cards that are to stream exclusively on ESPN+.

The agreement, which is slated to begin in 2019, will allow ESPN to take over from FOX as the non-pay-per-view destination for the UFC. The previous deal with FOX, which began in 2011, was worth approximately $115 million annually.

FOX recently signed a deal north of $1 billion with the WWE.