UFC Signs Content Technology Deal with Aspera

Aspera, therapy | Inc., creators of next-generation software technologies that move the world’s large data at maximum speed, today announced that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s leading promoter of mixed martial arts (MMA), has deployed Aspera’s high-speed transfer software to power its file-based content delivery workflows – for its internal teams during production of live events, for global distribution partners and for fans accessing content on the web or via their mobile devices from around the world.

With over 30 live events taking place annually worldwide, the UFC needed to implement a digital transport technology solution that would overcome wide area network challenges to deliver video content quickly to the production crew ahead of each event and distribute it internationally within hours of each event.

UFC deployed Aspera as the backbone of its digital asset management system allowing field production teams to quickly pull existing content from venues all over the world for inclusion in the live broadcasts. The same system links UFC’s Las Vegas headquarters and Los Angeles office, with video editors transferring gigabytes of file-based media on a daily basis.

UFC programming is broadcast to 800 million TV households throughout 145 countries, and content is hosted on UFC.com and delivered on every major mobile gaming platform including iTunes, Hulu, Xbox, Amazon, Roku, and Sony PS3. Exclusive footage offered includes fighters in training, event week activities such as workouts, weigh-ins and press conferences, and behind-the-scenes interviews.

“We needed to push large volumes of high-quality content from locations that sometimes have poor connectivity, so we developed a solution using Aspera,” said Christy King, vice president of digital and technology research and development at UFC. “There is simply no way we could have ever distributed this much content as broadly as we can today without the ability to deliver video as quickly as Aspera does.”

Aspera is also at the heart of UFC’s content delivery to over 150 international partners. Over the past year, UFC shifted its workflow from 90% physical tape delivery to 95% digital delivery via Aspera.

“We are thrilled to support UFC in their exponential growth by allowing them to scale and accelerate their content delivery workflow,” said Richard Heitmann, vice president of marketing at Aspera. “With Aspera software deployed on-premise and in the cloud, UFC can confidently rely on its technology investments to meet the growing worldwide demand for mixed martial arts content.”