ONE Championship Expected to Ink 3 Year Broadcast Deal with Turner Sports in U.S.
ONE Championship is coming to the United States with a three year broadcast deal that will see the Asia based promotion team up with Turner Sports.
Sources close to the situation confirmed the news on Tuesday following an initial report from ESPN.
The deal is expected to start on Jan. 1, 2019 with 24 events airing live on TNT as well as additional programming on other Turner Sports digital platforms such as B/R Live. According to the ESPN report, a reality show for ONE Championship is also in the works as part of the broadcast deal.
It’s expected that the ONE Championship cards will air live in the United States with the potential for rebroadcasts later in the day. ONE typically airs in the early morning hours U.S. time with events taking place in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar.
The first event expected to air on TNT will be on Jan. 19 with the show from Jakarta, Indonesia. The main event for that card will see strawweight champion Joshua Pacio defend his title against Hayato Suzuki.
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong has been teasing a U.S. television deal for several weeks after he helped orchestrate a trade to retain the services of former UFC champion Demetrious Johnson.
ONE Championship has signed several high profile stars from the United States including Johnson, Eddie Alvarez and Sage Northcutt, which will assuredly only help to raise the profile of the organization with this landmark broadcast deal.
ONE Championship also retained former UFC champion Miesha Tate as a new vice president for the company with expectations that she’ll be part of the broadcast team with the shows airing live on TNT in 2019.
ONE Championship will also be kicking off two Grand Prix tournaments next year — in the flyweight and lightweight divisions — and that will almost assuredly be major programming for the new Turner Sports deal.
