TKO released its third-quarter report on Wednesday evening. The following condenses and summarizes notable elements the company reported. You can read the documents below.
TKO reported a revenue increase for WWE of 23%, or $75.8 million, to $402.1 million, primarily related to a $31.4 million increase in live events and hospitality revenue, a $21.5 million increase in media rights, production and content revenue and a $18.2 million increase in partnerships and marketing revenue. TKO cited the reason for WWE’s increase in live events and hospitality revenue, primarily due to higher ticket sales revenue, as well as an increase in site fees for the first-ever two-night Summerslam and Wrestlepalooza. TKO cited the increase in WWE’s media rights, production and content revenue to higher rights fees for WWE’s premium live events, and the increase in partnerships and marketing revenue was primarily due to new partners and an increase in fees from renewals.
TKO reported an adjusted EBITDA increase of 19%, or $32.5 million, to $207.8 million. According to the company, this is primarily due to the revenue increase that was partially offset by an increase in expenses. Direct operating expenses increased primarily due to higher talent, production, marketing and other event-related costs. It also cited higher travel costs for the increase of selling, general and administrative expenses.
The third-quarter report confirms WWE and ESPN’s five-year media rights deal has an average annual value of $325 million, as previously reported.
TKO reveals it repurchased approximately $26 million of its outstanding Class A common stock under a privately negotiated transaction. The repurchases and the privately negotiated transaction were completed under TKO’s previously announced $2.0 billion share repurchase authorization.
TKO’s income statements showed a net income loss of $21.7 million in 2024 to $197.7 million in 2025 over a nine-month period.
In TKO’s balance sheet, it still reports a $3,701,000 long-term debt, a large part of it from the UFC purchase, which is on TKO’s books.
In its full-year 2025 guidance, TKO continued to emphasize financial gains compared to last year than what it previously said and expected. Expected revenue for 2025 is now $4.72 billion, up from $4.60 billion. And adjusted EBITDA is up to $1.58 billion, up from $1.57 billion.
The company’s quarterly report filing noted that TKO does not expect President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to have a material impact on the company. The bill was signed into law on July 4, 2025.
Notes from the Q3 2025 earnings conference call:
– TKO executive chairman and CEO Ari Emmanuel begins the call by discussing the growth and marquee events for UFC, WWE, Professional Bull Riding, Zuffa Boxing and IMG. Emmanuel highlighted WWE’s deal with the General Sports Authority to bring Wrestlemania 43 to Saudi Arabia, and he praised the “impressive” ratings for Smackdown, which he said led primetime cable ratings nine times during the quarter. He also noted Raw maintained its spot in Netflix’s global top 10 throughout the quarter, “extending a streak which began with the launch in January.”
– Emmanuel also highlighted WWE’s global partners, like Maybelline, that contributed to its growth.
– TKO CFO Andrew Schleimer: “We remain laser-focused on operational execution. UFC and WWE remain our core drivers, and we continue to see a significant trend in these brands.”
– Schleimer discusses the financials of all TKO’s businesses.
– Schleimer says TKO will increase its guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter in a row and will target revenue of $4.69 to $4.72 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $1.57 to $1.58 billion, an increase of $45 million and $25 million, respectively.
“The increase is related to strong operating performance at UFC and WWE through the first nine months of the year, as well as our anticipated performance for the remainder of the year. It also reflects the accelerated timing of the WWE PLE deal with ESPN, net of cost associated with terminating the NBCU deal early.”
– Schleimer looks ahead to Q4, citing WWE’s new domestic rights deal with ESPN and two main roster PLE events. He notes that a Saudi Arabia event shifted from Q4 2025 to the start of Q1 2026, but he still believes there will be a strong financial performance for TKO in the next quarter.
– Schleimer expects UFC’s seven-year deal with Paramount and ESPN’s five-year deal with ESPN to bring “attractive visibility for our businesses for years to come.”
– On site fees, Schleimer says, “We continue to see meaningful momentum in securing significant financial incentives and deliver measurable financial impact by bringing our events to cities in the United States and around the globe. We’re focused on a multi-pronged strategy that is focused on receiving higher value from markets we currently have incentive packages with, site fees from markets we’ve been to, but don’t currently receive a fee from, as well as site fees from new markets.”
– Schleimer noted there will be three PLEs in Saudi Arabia in 2026 compared to one in 2025 and reiterated TKO’s previously communicated target of $1 billion in total partnership revenue by 2030.
– Schleimer discusses TKO’s business venture into boxing in 2026.
– The Q/A portion begins with TKO president and COO Mark Shapiro explaining UFC’s international deal with Paramount. “It’s all about brand, reach, dollars.”
– WWE president Nick Khan is asked about WWE’s live event business heading into 2026.
“We’ve increased prices appropriately with the marketplace. That’s for the PLEs, Raw, Smackdown, Saturday Night’s Main Event and every other ticketed program that WWE has. We remain bullish on it. A couple of years ago, when TKO was stood up, one of the first things that we collectively did was reduce the non-televised live events, which created more scarcity in the marketplace for our televised events and our continued international expansion only furthered that. Even in January, you’ll see us on a European tour for Raw and Smackdown, leading into Royal Rumble, which takes place in Saudi Arabia. Tickets already on fire for that event, and again, creates more scarcity in the United States, which is a good thing for our overall gate.”
– Shapiro talks about the distribution model for UFC’s media rights.
Shapiro on UFC fighter pay: “… We do believe that there is going to be meaningful accretion to our operating margins going forward.”
UFC senior executive vice president and COO Lawrence Epstein said deals are being negotiated and fighter pay is expected to increase based on incentives.
– Shapiro talks about TKO’s plans for boxing.
– Schleimer reiterates that TKO will benefit from three Saudi Arabia events in 2026, as well as a Royal Rumble in the country, when it comes to site fees. Shapiro says TKO has a team that is constantly working on site fees for UFC, WWE and boxing.
“This is a high-margin revenue opportunity that we are approaching like a heat-seeking missile,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro says this team has been working together for the last three months after making outside hires for their “revenue generation team.” He describes it as a “six-person roster that is dialing for dollars.”
“Raw has really gained so much momentum,” Shapiro said. “When you’re No. 1 in 29 out of 30 countries week to week on Netflix, that catches a lot of people’s eyes, and that kind of opens the doors for these conversations we’re having with regional governments and municipalities, etc.”
– Schleimer and Shapiro talk about how UFC’s new media rights deal affects sponsorships.
– There’s a question is about WWE and ESPN’s partnership. Khan says WWE was pleased with the coverage of Wrestlepalooza on ESPN.
Khan said:
If you noticed any of the promotion going into our first event with them, Wrestlepalooza, which is a new event for us, which we’re really pleased with. You saw wall to wall coverage on all ESPN platforms, so much so that on College GameDay, the morning of Wrestlepalooza, you had the entire panel. Pat McAfee, Coach Saban, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Reece Davis all predicting the winner of Brock Lesnar versus John Cena. It was phenomenal. It’s going to take time for ESPN to grow that platform the way that they want to grow it. We’re patient. We’ll continue to put on our product the way that we think only we can do.
Shapiro added:
ESPN can be one of the best marketing partners in the media space. When they strategize and get behind something. We’ve seen that firsthand with the UFC. And to Nick’s point, Wrestlepalooza was an incredible launch. Great for our brand, great exposure out there and in some of their most prominent shows with some of their most prominent talent promoting our event. We want to sustain that. We need to sustain that. And I think at the same time, it’s extremely important to us. And we’re watching like everybody else to see that as they renew a lot of their, distribution partner deals, that they get the ability to authenticate for free. So, you know, ESPN DTC, if you’re, so-and-so subscriber, you know, I’m not going to get into, you know, who has it and who doesn’t. You know, some of these folks can just authenticate and they get the DTC partnership for free. They just carry the app and others are paying $29.99. And it’s their goal, of course, to redo all their transmission deals and get these consents. And we’re, you know, we’re anxious to see that happen.
Shapiro noted that YouTube TV “is a prime example” of Disney attempting to get renewals with carriers that would include the ESPN direct-to-consumer streaming service that broadcasts WWE PLEs.
