The Ultimate Fighting Championship today announced that it had terminated its agreement with Sentanta Sports and will announce a new broadcast partner soon.
The situation with Sentanta has been tenuous at best over the past few months, and the company made the decision to terminate the agreement now in order to get a new broadcast partner in place before UFC 100. The agreement with Sentanta has been in place since January of 2008, but UFC UK President Marshall Zelaznik feels the time is right to solidify the company’s broadcast position in the United Kingdom.
“They were the right partner for us at the right time as we continued to build the sport of mixed martial arts and our brand. Throughout the last few weeks, we have been kept informed of the situation at Setanta, and therefore, we are in a position to ensure our U.K. and Eire fans will not miss any of this summer’s huge UFC events, commencing with UFC 100 in July.”
UPDATE: It appears that Zuffa pulling out of the Sentanta contract was the final nail in the coffin for the broadcast network. Sentanta Sports has “gone dark” as of roughly 4pm ET, with subscribers seeing a black screen in place of the programming they would typically see.
