UFC Agrees Media Partnership with Indonesia’s MNC Media

The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced plans to break further into the Asian market, this time in Indonesia with a partnership with the Jakarta-based MNC Media. 

With that partnership, the UFC also expects eventually to hold events in Indonesia, likely first in the capital city of Jakarta. Indonesia is home to roughly 238 million people, putting it behind the United States in fourth place on the list of world’s most populous countries – and ahead of Brazil. 

UFC Executive Vice President and Managing Director of UFC Asia Mark Fischer said the company plans a more formal announcement of the new partnership in the coming weeks, along with additional details. But for now, it is another clear sign of the UFC’s expansion into the Asian MMA market. 

MNC (Media Nusantara Citra) Media, a 15-year-old company, counts TV stations, newspapers, magazines and radio stations among its holdings in Indonesia. 

“They are Indonesia’s by-far No. 1 media company with a 40 percent share of the Indonesian TV market,” Fischer said. “They also own a lot of other media, so it’s a great new partnership. It’s going to bring us on terrestrial TV and on their MNC Sports cable stations across the world’s fourth-most populous country. So we’re really excited about that for our future in this great potential market. 

“In addition to the media relationship we’re going to have with our programming, MNC is going to be a strategic partner, as well, in the areas of developing the sport and (Indonesian) fighter development, as well as helping to cooperate on bringing UFC fights in the future to Jakarta and other places in Indonesia. So we’re really excited about that.” 

Rudy Tanoesoedibjo, CEO of MNC’s SkyVision, said: “We are very pleased to announce this,” Tanoesoedibjo said. “Indonesia is the third country in Asia after Japan and China to bring the UFC, and we’re going to be organizing fights in Indonesia. I believe with us as the fourth-most populous country in the world, this can be a very big event in our country.”