As these shifts take place, the media industry is about to go through a major test: how many people are willing to pay for a lot of — but not all — the sports content they want to watch.

Paramount has landed an exclusive seven-year US broadcasting deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The deal is valued at a staggering US$7.7 billion (A$12 billion) averaging $1.1 billion (A$1.

The meet and greet was at UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas nearly a year ago. In the luxury box of TKO Holdings, which owns UFC and WWE, were media luminaries: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Disney’s Bob Iger and the future leader of Paramount, David Ellison, CEO of Skydance.