Major Changes Coming To AEW TV Soon?

AEW

Warner Bros Discovery wants to do a long-term deal with AEW but this could also see changes to the way AEW is presented on television.

As previously reported, 2023 will see both companies enter negotiations as their current deal ends at the end of that year.

On the latest edition of John Arezzi’s Pro Wrestling Spotlight podcast, the hosts discussed a range of topics, with Arezzi sharing some interesting information from his ‘inside sources’, saying:

“They see this property, AEW, as someone they want to be in business with long-term. They had a contract which was absorbed by them when they merged that wasn’t the sweetest deal for TNT and TBS. It was kind of one-sided.”

Clearly seeking to correct the imbalance, which seems to favour AEW over their business partner, Arezzi concluded:

“So now what they are trying to do is to kind of collaborate and work together so they can work on the next long-term deal with them. I can’t get into it too much but there’s a lot of faith behind the AEW product right now from the folks at Warner Bros. Discovery.”

What form these changes could take isn’t clear and probably won’t be until late in the negotiations, but Arezzi did explain that:

“The strategy is that they are pushing AEW into the sports category, not the entertainment category.”

This would certainly fit the plans to turn TBS into a “more sport-centric network” and bodes well for AEW if the plan is to keep them on that channel and rework it to fit the profile instead of shuffling it off to a different station under the Warner Bros Discovery umbrella.

Quotes via WrestlingNews.co

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