Dana White knows how to run a business and take it to its absolute peak. He bought the UFC for only $2 million in 2001 and built it into the giant it is today. White now believes that the much-loved sporting event is now among the upper echelons of American sport, where the NFL reigns supreme.

“Without sounding too arrogant, people always ask me about, oh, you’re competing with this, you’re competing with this guy,” White said on June 7 after the Zuffa Boxing event in the UK, via ProBox TV. “Right now, at the level that we’re at, we’re competing with the NFL. We’re competing with the NBA. We’re competing with Major League Baseball and with the NHL.

“You got to imagine the way in the United States the powerhouse over there is the NFL, and I’m sure when the NFL, when they were sitting in their executive offices and they saw the deal that we got with Paramount they had to be thinking, ‘Wait a minute, there was $8 billion sitting over at Paramount that we didn’t get. We’ll start putting games on ‌Tuesdays.'”

Last year, the TKO Group-owned UFC secured a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount for seven years. The tournament now gets to earn $1.1 billion annually. It is far lower than the NFL’s $10 billion annual haul from the $110 billion media rights deal. But unlike the NFL, the UFC’s deal is set in stone; Commissioner Roger Goodell and Co. are still trying to whittle down the terms of a future media rights deal.

Research publisher MoffettNathanson predicted that the NFL’s potential new deal could give the NFL $15.9 billion per year, a 58% hike from the current revenue. But the UFC, with its new contract, has registered a whopping 1000% increase in US rights fees since it secured its first deal with FOX 15 years ago.

The UFC also had a $1.5 billion, five-year deal with ESPN, which gave the tournament $300 million annually. The jump from here to $1.1 billion per year shows how far along the sport has come. 

However, unlike the UFC, the NFL is still giving business to traditional networks. Streaming platforms are getting attractive games too, like Netflix becoming a staple for the holiday games. But historically, the league and cable TV have been best friends. For decades, football has been the most-watched program on television, and occupied the top spot last season too. NFL games occupied 83 spots in the 100 most-watched programs from last year, per a study by Nielsen.

No sport has come close to dethroning football as the most-favorite in the country. But that dominance will only last as long as the fan experience is prioritized. With the Department of Justice looming over the NFL over its suspected violation of antitrust exemptions in sports broadcasting, networks may want to delay a new media rights deal for as long as possible.

NFL currently under investigation for violating antitrust policy

Under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, professional leagues like the NFL are exempt from antitrust policies when it comes to broadcast rights. That is where the NFL has found a loophole: the law only takes cable TV into account, allowing the league to approach streaming platforms with bold offers.

The Federal Communications Commission found that fans who used streaming services to watch NFL games last year paid more $1,500 to catch every game available on these platforms. Forbes noted that 10 streamers had exclusive rights to 20 regular season games, sending fans on a hectic and expensive ride to catch these games.

Utah Senator Mike Lee wrote a letter to the DOJ, urging the antitrust enforcement arm to “examine” this situation. Roger Goodell has now been asked to testify in Congress regarding the league’s experiments with streaming services.

The NFL is also adapting to this new normal, at the cost of bypassing tradition. For example, the Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears game last season was only free to watch in the Green Bay and Milwaukee markets. But the rest of Wisconsin had to subscribe to Amazon Prime to catch this game.

“[Families] were forced to pay Jeff Bezos just to watch the game,” Senator Tammy Baldwin told The Athletic. “It’s extremely frustrating to not know how or where to watch the games we love. It’s also damn expensive.” 

The league is already on the clock to figure out a new media rights deal before the current contract runs out. With other sports already securing new ones without much hassle, the NFL is now in a tough spot.