Post by Feargus McReddit on Jun 12, 2023 10:52:37 GMT -5
News: The WWE has finished its exclusive negotiating window with Fox and Comcast/USA Network without a new deal, The Post has learned.
This is not surprising, because most major deals go to the open market, even if the incumbents remain the favorites. We would maintain at this point that Fox, with “Friday Night Smackdown,” and USA, with “Monday Night Raw,” remain most likely to re-up; that is usually the common thought at these points in deals that have been wins for both sides.
However, to quote the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase, “Everybody’s got a price.”
The current deals are each five years. Comcast pays $265 million per year to put “Monday Night Raw” on USA Network, while Fox doles out $205 million per year for “Friday Night Smackdown.” These contracts run until Oct. 2024.
It is still early in the process, but one party that does have interest in adding the WWE is Disney, according to sources. The potential cable placement would not be ESPN, but rather FX.
Let’s take a closer look at what, and who, is in play…
What about streaming? Peacock’s five-year, $1 billion WWE streaming deal is not in play for this round, as it is not up until March 2026, right before WrestleMania 42. So we will put that to the side for now.
Numbers: WWE is 52 weeks a year, and it draws. Last week, Fox picked up 2.563 million viewers (955K were 18-49) for Friday night. Last week on USAN, “Raw” had 1.828M viewers.
With its broadcast rights now available to every network, WWE’s year-round schedule and strong audience numbers are expected to draw interest from Disney and Amazon.
Who else could have big interest: Besides FX, the biggest new player could be Amazon Prime Video.
We would also add Warner Bros. Discovery and Apple as dark horse candidates. CBS is not expected to be in on WWE rights. Netflix is always mentioned in these types of stories, but shouldn’t be until they show any willingness to spend big on these sorts of deals.
Let’s provide some context on the contenders:
Disney/FX: The reason FX makes more sense than ESPN is ESPN can’t guarantee a night of the week to WWE. It has too many game commitments, so it can’t just say Mondays are for WWE.
Furthermore, ESPN is a sports network, while I would describe wrestling as athletic entertainment. It doesn’t fully work on linear ESPN.
When Peacock’s streaming deal is up, though, ESPN+ could be a contender again. ESPN+ was in on the last WWE streaming rights negotiations.
As for TV, the audience WWE draws could be a boon for FX, which has had to manage around the growing reality that scripted programs largely continue to migrate to streaming and commercial-free TV.
The potential Disney-WWE partnership makes some sense due to connections, as well.
ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro leads sports acquisitions for Disney. This is important because WWE recently joined forces with Endeavor. WWE’s CEO Nick Khan has a strong relationship with Pitaro and ESPN president of content, Burke Magnus, while Endeavor’s leaders, Ari Emmanuel and Mark Shapiro, already have a bond with ESPN over its UFC deal.
Roman Reigns and WWE’s roster of TV-friendly stars would be welcome additions to a network like FX.
Money rules, but relationships matter.
Amazon: Amazon Prime Video will be in talks for WWE, and you can see how it fits in their strategy. They have shown a willingness to pay for big, standalone events. The biggest, of course, is “Thursday Night Football” for a billion dollars a year. It’s exclusive and brings in an audience that exceeded 10 million streamers in some weeks. Amazon tried to pair Big Ten Football on Saturday nights with its NFL package, but lost out to NBC.
While WWE might be hesitant to turn its broadcast distribution over to a streaming service, its programming has a sticky audience that finds its shows wherever they are.
During the 2022 Olympics, “Raw” moved from USA Network to SyFy and kept 87 percent of its audience as compared to the average on its main network in the four weeks before the shift, according to Nielsen.
If Amazon got it, Al Michaels enthusiastically reading WWE promos on a Thursday into a Friday makes some sense as a promotional tool.
Dark horses: At this point, we would put both Apple and Warner Bros. Discovery in this category. They both seem more focused on the NBA, but one nugget I was told that may interest wrestling fans is that Warner Bros. Discovery does not have to stay exclusive to AEW. It would be something if it got in on WWE. But I don’t see it yet.
While Fox and USA Network are considered the favorites to retain WWE’s broadcast rights when they expire in Oct. 2024, there’s always time for an unexpected plot twist in the world of wrestling.
Takeaway: Fox and USA want to keep WWE, but Disney and Amazon could each make a strong run at it. That is where things stand, but it is still early.
This is not surprising, because most major deals go to the open market, even if the incumbents remain the favorites. We would maintain at this point that Fox, with “Friday Night Smackdown,” and USA, with “Monday Night Raw,” remain most likely to re-up; that is usually the common thought at these points in deals that have been wins for both sides.
However, to quote the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase, “Everybody’s got a price.”
The current deals are each five years. Comcast pays $265 million per year to put “Monday Night Raw” on USA Network, while Fox doles out $205 million per year for “Friday Night Smackdown.” These contracts run until Oct. 2024.
It is still early in the process, but one party that does have interest in adding the WWE is Disney, according to sources. The potential cable placement would not be ESPN, but rather FX.
Let’s take a closer look at what, and who, is in play…
What about streaming? Peacock’s five-year, $1 billion WWE streaming deal is not in play for this round, as it is not up until March 2026, right before WrestleMania 42. So we will put that to the side for now.
Numbers: WWE is 52 weeks a year, and it draws. Last week, Fox picked up 2.563 million viewers (955K were 18-49) for Friday night. Last week on USAN, “Raw” had 1.828M viewers.
With its broadcast rights now available to every network, WWE’s year-round schedule and strong audience numbers are expected to draw interest from Disney and Amazon.
Who else could have big interest: Besides FX, the biggest new player could be Amazon Prime Video.
We would also add Warner Bros. Discovery and Apple as dark horse candidates. CBS is not expected to be in on WWE rights. Netflix is always mentioned in these types of stories, but shouldn’t be until they show any willingness to spend big on these sorts of deals.
Let’s provide some context on the contenders:
Disney/FX: The reason FX makes more sense than ESPN is ESPN can’t guarantee a night of the week to WWE. It has too many game commitments, so it can’t just say Mondays are for WWE.
Furthermore, ESPN is a sports network, while I would describe wrestling as athletic entertainment. It doesn’t fully work on linear ESPN.
When Peacock’s streaming deal is up, though, ESPN+ could be a contender again. ESPN+ was in on the last WWE streaming rights negotiations.
As for TV, the audience WWE draws could be a boon for FX, which has had to manage around the growing reality that scripted programs largely continue to migrate to streaming and commercial-free TV.
The potential Disney-WWE partnership makes some sense due to connections, as well.
ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro leads sports acquisitions for Disney. This is important because WWE recently joined forces with Endeavor. WWE’s CEO Nick Khan has a strong relationship with Pitaro and ESPN president of content, Burke Magnus, while Endeavor’s leaders, Ari Emmanuel and Mark Shapiro, already have a bond with ESPN over its UFC deal.
Roman Reigns and WWE’s roster of TV-friendly stars would be welcome additions to a network like FX.
Money rules, but relationships matter.
Amazon: Amazon Prime Video will be in talks for WWE, and you can see how it fits in their strategy. They have shown a willingness to pay for big, standalone events. The biggest, of course, is “Thursday Night Football” for a billion dollars a year. It’s exclusive and brings in an audience that exceeded 10 million streamers in some weeks. Amazon tried to pair Big Ten Football on Saturday nights with its NFL package, but lost out to NBC.
While WWE might be hesitant to turn its broadcast distribution over to a streaming service, its programming has a sticky audience that finds its shows wherever they are.
During the 2022 Olympics, “Raw” moved from USA Network to SyFy and kept 87 percent of its audience as compared to the average on its main network in the four weeks before the shift, according to Nielsen.
If Amazon got it, Al Michaels enthusiastically reading WWE promos on a Thursday into a Friday makes some sense as a promotional tool.
Dark horses: At this point, we would put both Apple and Warner Bros. Discovery in this category. They both seem more focused on the NBA, but one nugget I was told that may interest wrestling fans is that Warner Bros. Discovery does not have to stay exclusive to AEW. It would be something if it got in on WWE. But I don’t see it yet.
While Fox and USA Network are considered the favorites to retain WWE’s broadcast rights when they expire in Oct. 2024, there’s always time for an unexpected plot twist in the world of wrestling.
Takeaway: Fox and USA want to keep WWE, but Disney and Amazon could each make a strong run at it. That is where things stand, but it is still early.
nypost.com/2023/06/12/why-fx-is-a-contender-for-wwes-broadcast-rights/
A lot of the article is speculative despite the clickbaity tweets out there saying there's firm interest but the general state of play of it makes sense. FX building a lineup around WWE sounds logical enough but also I can't see a world where USA, and in turn Comcast, doesn't claw its way to keeping WWE because if Raw and NXT left the USA Network, it's basically done as a network.