In this week’s column, California Sports Lawyer® CEO and Managing Attorney Jeremy M. Evans writes about the creation of the franchise sports studio that mirrors the entertainment model with IP libraries and storylines of content to keep viewers and fans engaged.
The unscripted nature of sports also makes the property more valuable and entertaining because the plots and outcomes are uncertain.
You can read the full column below. (Past columns can be found, here).
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Sports properties are starting to operate like Hollywood franchises: the live event is the blockbuster film, and everything around it is becoming a shared universe that keeps fans engaged year-round. The shift is not about changing the game, it is about changing the packaging and business. The recent UFC-Paramount deal is proof that sports when packaged with existing intellectual property (IP) can be very successful when a match is not going on or there is an off-season.
A “franchise sports studio” is a league, team, or property (or its media partner) that runs sports like an IP studio. The studio offers tentpole events (matches, fights, games) as main releases or the feature films in entertainment. The spinoffs and series are built with the fighters as characters, developing rivalries, and context between the main events. The objective is sustained subscription, attention, and cultural relevance — not just single-night ratings.
UFC and Paramount are the perfect marriage for this as one provides the content, the other provides the streaming and distribution. In addition, combat sports naturally generate character arcs: rise, rivalry, redemption, and legacy. The new UFC media strategy (with an exclusive home and expanded shoulder programming) signals that buyers are paying for a content engine where fighters are positioned like franchise leads with interconnected storylines beyond fight nights.
However, there is an important caveat here that is important. The franchise sports studio is about content not scripting as in wrestling or films and series. Competitive integrity is maintained, but the studio monetizes the narratives that naturally grow out of real competition. The aforementioned model is also why Paramount is pursuing a buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. in the home of HBO, the original fight programming and distribution.
A franchise sports studio does not live only off its tentpole events; it surrounds them with a year-round content ecosystem that keeps fans inside the property even when no match is on the calendar. The flagship cards, playoffs, or rivalry games function like feature films, marketed as cultural moments that anchor the brand. Around those releases sit the spinoffs that make the universe feel continuous: origin and development series that introduce new stars, prestige docuseries that follow camps and seasons to deepen emotional investment, short road to miniseries that sharpen rivalries before the next tentpole, and personality driven culture content that travels well across platforms. Even the archives become active assets, repackaged as sagas that tie past eras to the present storylines.
That expansion changes the dealmaking. Rights packages increasingly move from games only to games plus universe, with streamers and networks seeking production commitments, predictable access windows, and coordinated cross platform promotion to keep the franchise cadence intact. Athlete contracts also become more intellectual property sensitive, because the story around the athlete now has measurable value. Likeness and life story rights, doc participation terms, and guardrails on editorial control all rise in importance, while still preserving the authenticity that audiences demand. The practical legal question shifts from who owns the live event to who owns, controls, and profits from the surrounding narrative engine.
The larger point is that sports is not turning into scripted entertainment; it is becoming franchised entertainment. Competitive integrity remains the foundation, but the business model increasingly treats real competition as the tentpole that powers a broader cinematic strategy. If the UFC Paramount pairing is any signal, more leagues will pitch themselves the same way studios pitch their universes: not as seasonal schedules, but as interconnected franchises designed to hold attention and drive subscriptions long after the final buzzer or bell. The unscripted nature of sports also makes the property more valuable and entertaining because the plots and outcomes are uncertain.
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About Jeremy M. Evans:
Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.
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