But recently there has been a shift in combat-sports programming toward streaming, like Wednesday’s announcement that Jake Paul will fight Gervonta “Tank” Davis in a boxing match this fall. The fight, which will occur on Nov. 14 and stream globally on Netflix The Paul-Davis fight is another example of Netflix’s foray into live sports. Last year, Netflix’s stock set a new all-time high after news that its live-streamed boxing match between Paul and Mike Tyson drew 108 million viewers. Netflix said it was was the most-streamed global sporting event ever. And boxing isn’t the only PPV sport making its way to streaming. Earlier this month, Paramount Skydance Corp. There are still some boxing PPV events, and professional wrestling in both the WWE and AEW have PPV events as well. But high-profile events, like the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight back in 2017, are no longer the exclusive domain of PPV. Given these big changes, is the PPV business model dead? “The streaming players definitely have them in the corner right now, to use a boxing analogy,” Jacqueline Corbelli, chief executive of BrightLine, a technology company that specializes in television advertising, told MarketWatch. “But it’s just a little too early in the battle to conclude that PPV is completely dead. What is certain is they are less and less likely to survive. Streaming has severely weakened the power of the PPV model at this stage.” “The pay-per-view model is a thing of the past,” Mark Shapiro, TKO Group’s president and chief operating officer, said in an interview last week with CNBC. “What’s on pay-per-view anymore? Boxing? Movies on DirecTV? It’s an outdated, antiquated model.” See: Three NFL teams are now worth over $10 billion — and one of them cost just $500 when it was founded One advantage streaming has over the PPV model is that it drastically increases the viewership base. More people are likely to watch a sporting event if it comes free with their $10 monthly subscription than if they have to pay an additional $99 on top of their subscription fee. As of now, streaming companies think it’s viable to buy live-programming rights to these combat sports and put them on their services without a PPV option. In fact, some UFC fights will be broadcast on CBS too, as part of the Skydance agreement. “Economics will drive these outcomes like they always have, and we will have an answer within the next two years or sooner, given speed and heat behind the dollars competing for every component of live sports now,” Corbelli said. See: NFL-ESPN deal to include RedZone bundle for new streaming service. And more RedZone shows could follow.