PSSI Signs Multi-Year Agreement With TKO To Provide Global Transmission Services for UFC and WWE Live Events

PSSI Global Services has reached a multi-year agreement with TKO to provide expansive transmission services for all live WWE and UFC events. PSSI’s Strategic Television division has been working closely with WWE and UFC for many years, providing domestic and international transmission, engineering, and project management services through an era of explosive growth for both properties.

PSSI and TKO have signed this agreement with a shared focus on continuity and efficiency. Both companies have committed to developing technologies to deliver linear content to each property’s broadcast partners, featuring hundreds of international licensees around the world, as well as OTT and production-support content between remote origination sites and UFC APEX in Las Vegas and WWE’s new headquarters in Stamford, Conn.

PSSI has been instrumental in working with both UFC and WWE to build out the transmission and broadcast infrastructure at each home base facility, including the installation of satellite antennas, compression and monitoring equipment, and extensive terrestrial connectivity. On the remote origination side, PSSI recently leveraged key partnerships with Appear and Telstra Broadcast Services to provide another groundbreaking REMI transmission live from Shanghai, China for the Road to UFC tournament.

“Both UFC and WWE have been committed to delivering the highest-quality content to our fans around the world, but with very different approaches to production and transmission,” says Tim O’Toole, Senior Vice President, Event Production, UFC. “As we’ve learned more about the WWE model since the merger, one of the most significant common threads was the Strategic Television project management and engineering teams of PSSI. They have been critical to the success of UFC APEX, not to mention the hundreds of UFC events around the world that PSSI has supported over the years. We are excited to expand our partnership and find new ways to get all of TKO’s exciting content to our fans consistently, efficiently and at the highest possible quality.”

“WWE asks a lot of PSSI when we are on the road,” says Marty Pingree, Senior Vice President, Engineering and Event Technical Operations, WWE.  “We have high standards, which PSSI consistently exceeds by custom-building their equipment packages to our spec. The attention to detail by the PSSI team when it comes to these builds is second to none. I know that when I show up in Jeddah, Glasgow, or any city in the U.S. to produce a live show, PSSI has their truck or encoding kit dialed in to make certain every element of our events make it to air, with multiple backup plans in place to expect the unexpected. We have great relationships with all of our vendors, but I am particularly excited to formalize our partnership with PSSI with this agreement.”

“Both UFC and WWE have been foundational clients of PSSI for many years,” says Derek Blount, CEO of PSSI. “It has been a thrill to witness the respective growth of each of these properties. Having them come together under the TKO umbrella allows an excellent opportunity for PSSI to provide even greater efficiencies in providing transmission services for both domestic events and the ever-expanding international footprints of UFC and WWE.  The future is bright for TKO, and we’re excited to continue our partnership.”