UFC 324, the first UFC event of the Paramount+ era, has concluded. And now that it’s over we can assess what we thought of it. According to many of the sport’s fans on social media, there were too many commercials. Way too many commercials.
In hindsight this shouldn’t have been surprising. The UFC switched their numbered events from a pay-per-view format to ‘free’ with a subscription to Paramount+. Now that American fans aren’t paying $80 for the events, the value extractors from TKO decided it’s perfectly fine and normal for there to be ads. And a lot of fans would agree with them … to a point.
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The sheer amount of ads that were jammed into the broadcast was a lot. Turbo Tax was everywhere, with their K-Pop Demon Hunters inspired commercial playing ad nauseam. Scream 7 promotion also got a bit silly, with Ghostface creeping along behind Waldo Acosta-Cortes as he headed backstage after his fight.
Walkouts? Largely replaced by ads. Corner work between rounds? Largely replaced by ads. Even the UFC promos had ads stuffed in the corner of the screen. All of a sudden people are starting to realize the end of the pay-per-view era might have been a deal with the devil.
Take a look at some of the reactions to UFC 324 on Paramount+ and all the advertisements featured through the event.
Dana used to have a hard rule to get to the fights – the fights! – within seven minutes of a UFC event starting.
Those were better days.#UFC324
— Ant Evans (@AntEvansMMA) January 25, 2026
Just a debut show – lots to get in #UFC324 . Don’t expect the new norm to be 30 minutes after the hour. Just trying to do some special stuff. It’ll be at least 10 minutes earlier next week. All is well. All is well 🙂
— Zach Candito (@ZachCandito) January 25, 2026
UFC on Paramount+ is horrible. No fighter walkout. No between rounds commentary. Almost all commercials if fights finish early. Subscribing to Paramount+ for this is not worth it.
— SailorAbby (@Sailor_Abby965) January 25, 2026
I am thrilled UFC is back and PPV is dead but holy hell if the ads are going to be this frequent for the entire card we are cooked. #UFC324
— Jake (@nacimroc_) January 24, 2026
Paramount’s UFC deal may have already set a new low for ad placement on live sports broadcasts.
— Jordan Patu (@Jordan_Patu) January 25, 2026
The only thing that sucks about 1st round finishes is we’ve been waiting six weeks for fights and the broadcast has been live for over 2 hours now and we have less than 15 minutes of actual in cage fighting time thus far. Getting blue balled over here. #UFC324
— MacMally 🍀 (@MacMallyMMA) January 25, 2026
The entrances have to be preserved it’s part of the entire vibe of the event. Given the choice, I’d rather they skip the pointless pre-fight promos than walkouts.
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) January 25, 2026
No PPV but you have to watch Turbo Tax commercials… PPV sounds better.
— FrontRowBrian™ 🇺🇸 ₿ (@FrontRowBrian) January 25, 2026
It’s insane how self fellating this broadcast is.
I already love this sport, if you keep shoving 5000 promos and terrible pacing I feel like you’re trying to convince me to stop watching, put on fights ffs.— Feño 🏴 (@fenoxsky) January 25, 2026
So the hallmark of Paramount main cards is going to be that UFC main card pacing is now 50% slower due to ad breaks??? Seems like what we’re getting.
— Zane Simon (@TheZaneSimon) January 25, 2026
I totally understand advertising during every UFC event — Paramount gotta recoup that $7.7 billion investment — but PLEASE don’t do that at the expense of not showing the walkouts, at least on the main card.
That really takes away from the broadcast IMO #UFC324
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) January 25, 2026
