US MMA expert Kevin Iole takes a look at what the future holds for the UFC with a current television deal set to expire at the end of the year.

The not-so-big secret that Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White is keeping is that he is working on a new television deal. Zuffa’s contract with Spike TV expires at the end of the year and negotiations aren’t going smoothly.

Spike stole a trick from White on June 26 and counter-programmed the live UFC show on Versus with a taped Ultimate Fight Night event. Spike then premiered the “Countdown to UFC 132” series at the odd time of 1:12 p.m., making the point to White that it can play hardball if it needs to do so.

The UFC grew up on Spike and Spike made its bones by televising the UFC, so even though negotiations have been contentious, they’re good for each other and there will probably be a new deal announced before much longer.

But the UFC is going to expand its television presence and that is where things will get interesting. The UFC is a pay-per-view company as it stands now, and company co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta said that’s not going to change.

Things may, however, be moving more toward the middle, where there is more product put on cable and potentially over-the-air television and some fight cards that had been on pay-per-view will be broadcast on television. Bouts on network television or basic cable are available to many millions of more people than will ever see a fight on pay-per-view or premium cable.

It’s the reason why the UFC has begun showing fights that otherwise would have gone unaired as a free live stream on Facebook.

“The thing we’ve always been into is exposing as many people as we possibly can to the UFC, the fights and the fighters,” White said.

That’s probably why its new television deal is not going to include HBO, despite the recent resignation of HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg. Greenburg was no mixed martial arts fan, though it was Zuffa who walked away from a potential deal in 2007, not HBO, because it didn’t want to cede control of production.

But HBO is only in around 30 million homes, while a network like Spike is in more than 90 million. Unless Zuffa works a deal with Time Warner to include programming on Turner Broadcasting, which has TNT and TBS among its networks, the UFC won’t likely appear on HBO.

Fertitta said the company is talking “to all the major media players out there.” And while the biggest fights are going to remain on pay-per-view, look for a multi-platform approach on the next deal that puts more free bouts on television.

NBCUniversal would seem to be a perfect partner, though talks reportedly have been up and down. The UFC already has a relationship with the entity because of its deal on Versus. NBCUniversal includes NBC, the Spanish-language Telemundo, Versus and USA Network, as well as strong online properties. The UFC is looking to expand its base with the Spanish-speaking audience and Telemundo reaches more than 95 percent of U.S. Latinos.

Being able to put programming, including live fights, on those various platforms will allow the UFC to gain as wide exposure as possible.

A deal with Disney would include many of the same options and provide outlets such as ABC, ESPN and ESPN Deportes.

Fertitta said the UFC has a desperate need for more outlets because of the number of fighters it has under contract.

“One of the things we’re trying to accomplish here is trying to accommodate our business, meaning accommodate our schedule in that there are so many great fighters out there that we need to get exposure for, which means it’s a numbers game,” Fertitta said.

“It’s math. We need more fights on free TV. The more fights we put on free TV, the more we grow our fan base and we also continue to grow potential contenders that people are familiar with. People get interested in each different guy and each different matchup and their personalities and their backgrounds. They know what kind of a fighter they are. You don’t want a situation where you have a champion and he’s defending his title against guys you don’t know who they are.”

Fertitta said he didn’t think a broadcast channel could support the largest, and thus most expensive bouts, and said that as a result, they’ll wind up on pay-per-view.

The new television deal, though, isn’t going to be with a single channel and will deliver the product to consumers through broadcast, cable and digital platforms.

Kevin Iole / Eurosport