• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 9 hours ago

The live “UFC Freedom 250” event -- to be held on the front lawn of the White House June 14 -- hopes to do more than boost the profile of President Trump, who pushed for the event to celebrate his birthday as well as the 250th anniversary of the United States.

It is looking for new audiences -- and is being developed to attract younger audiences in particular.

How young? Apparently those that watch Comedy Central's popular show “South Park,” according to one Paramount Skydance executive.

This is good news for TKO Group Holdings, the media company that owns Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the mixed-martial arts sports league. But the event is not expected to produce positive results for the bottom line.

TKO executives say the event itself will not make money. There will be losses, even as TKO has pulled in sponsorship deals with Ram Trucks, Crypto.com, and Monster Energy.

Mark Shapiro, president and COO of TKO, said the event will cost the company $60 million to produce, and that amount may go higher.

A bottom-line loss, after considering sponsorship deals and other advertising, would amount to $30 million.

Long term, the situation may be different. Shapiro believes all this equates to “earned media” -- to help its business in the long term.

And that goes for Paramount -- which is only a few months into its very expensive $7.7 billion, seven-year UFC contract -- as well, with content airing on its traditional TV networks and its premium streamer Paramount+.

The profitability of UFC for Paramount is yet to be determined. It is counting on engagement from viewers of all types during the high-profile holiday period.

What is the expected audience for this spectacle? There will be curious viewers as well as those endemic UFC loyal fans.

Recent UFC events on CBS have pulled in between 2.7 million and 2.8 million viewers. In January of this year, the debut event -- UFC 324 -- took in 4.96 million viewers on streamer Paramount+.

With the political backdrop, that audience will probably increase -- according to the aspirations of Paramount/TKO -- to perhaps 10 million.

What is actually earned -- and learned -- will not be known for some time after that.

Perhaps South Park will also find a way to celebrate the event -- with some of the heavy, mocking social satire it is known for.

Isn't the show known for doing sometimes heavy parody, thrown President Trump's way? That might shake things up some.