It didn’t take long for David Ellison, the fresh-faced millennial owner and CEO of Paramount Skydance, to make a statement. Just five days after the merger between Paramount and Skydance closed, the scion of Oracle’s Larry Ellison reached into his deep pockets to acquire seven years of broadcast rights to UFC mixed-martial arts matches for $7.7 billion.

With a single pen stroke, the sports rights deal accomplished two significant feats for Ellison and the new Paramount. First, it demonstrated his willingness to spend lavishly after years of tightfistedness at Paramount. And second, it signaled that the media company is determined to become a major player in streaming and to use live sports rights to do so. It was a striking turnabout in sports after Paramount sat out negotiations for NBA rights and generally fell behind the rest of its competitors.