VICE TV Becomes US Home for PFL International Championships, Securing Exclusive Rights to MENA and Africa Events
VICE TV announced a multi-year broadcasting partnership with the PFL, marking the first-time American television audiences will access PFL’s international competition through the network’s extensive cable footprint. The deal establishes VICE TV as the exclusive linear US broadcaster for ten international events beginning in December 2025 and continuing throughout 2026, alongside 50 hours of on-demand library content spanning PFL MENA and PFL Africa programming.
VICE TV and The PFL
The partnership shows a significant expansion of VICE TV’s sports strategy and underscores PFL‘s rapid global growth as the organization continues establishing regional franchises beyond North America. VICE TV reaches more than 40 million cable and satellite homes across the United States, providing the platform with substantial distribution capacity for the combat sports content. The network has positioned itself as an emerging destination for alternative sports programming since launching VICE Sports in 2025, a vertical designed to deliver live event sports and sports-related documentary content to audiences seeking distinctive storytelling approaches in the sports media landscape.
The initial broadcast slate includes two championship events scheduled for December. The PFL MENA Championships will air on December 5 from Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, featuring four title fights across the bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight divisions at the Dhahran Expo venue. The event will prominently feature Kuwait’s Mohammad Alaqraa defending his welterweight championship status against Morocco’s Badreddine Diani, alongside the lightweight final between undefeated Iraqi fighter Mohammad Fahmi and Morocco’s Salah Eddine Hamli. The second broadcast, the PFL Africa Championships on December 20 from Benin, West Africa, will crown the first-ever PFL Africa champions across four weight divisions following the completion of regional semifinals in Rwanda during October.
Peter Gaffney, President of VICE TV, stated that the network’s audience seeks content that stands apart from mainstream offerings. “VICE TV audiences come to us for the high-octane, provocative and compelling content they can’t find anywhere else, and as we continue enhance our live sports slate, we’re proud to welcome Professional Fighter’s League to our line-up and give our viewers and PFL fans across the US access to these international fights for the first time on television,” Gaffney said. The partnership aligns with VICE TV’s sports programming infrastructure, which already includes broadcasting commitments to Bare Knuckle Boxing, United Fight League, Arena Football One, and basketball coverage through the BIG3 league.
The Professional Fighters League CEO John Martin, appointed to his position in July 2025, characterized the partnership as a transformational moment for global MMA distribution. Martin previously led Turner Broadcasting as chairman and CEO from 2014 to 2018 and served as chief financial officer at Time Warner. His appointment reflected PFL’s ambition to capitalize on international growth opportunities, as the organization continues expanding its footprint beyond the North American market where it maintains existing broadcast agreements with ESPN.
The eight additional events scheduled throughout 2026 will expand the television coverage of PFL’s international franchises for American audiences. PFL currently operates international leagues in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Africa, with plans to launch additional regional competitions in Australia and the Pacific region in 2026, followed by expansions into Latin America and Asia in subsequent years.
The 50 hours of library content included in the VICE TV agreement provides on-demand access to archived PFL MENA and PFL Africa fights for cable, satellite, and telco distributors. This on-demand component extends the partnership’s value beyond live event broadcasts, allowing subscribers to access historical competition footage according to their convenience.
VICE TV has systematically built a sports portfolio since establishing VICE Sports, recognizing that male-skewing audiences over-index as sports consumers and that sports programming strengthens relationships with pay television providers in an evolving media landscape.
The Professional Fighters League’s valuation reached $1 billion in 2025, marking a significant milestone for the organization since its 2018 inception. PFL founder Donn Davis highlighted the international market opportunity, noting that approximately 550 million of the sport’s estimated 650 million global fans reside outside the United States.
VICE TV noted that the deal aligns with the network’s commitment to storytelling and authentic sports coverage, while PFL highlighted the partnership’s role in bringing regional MMA talent and international competition to North American audiences previously unable to access these events through traditional broadcasting channels.
