NBCUniversal Exec Touts AEW Potential To Streaming Partner Such As HBOMax

AEW

An NBCUniversal exec touts the potential contribution of AEW to a streaming partner like HBOMax in a new interview.

On the latest episode of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff, former independent wrestler Mik Pandit who is currently serving as a Business Affairs Manager for Universal Studios Group was on the show to discuss amongst other things, the future of wrestling in streaming.

In speaking about the consumer fatigue in the streaming space, Pandit highlights the benefit AEW would provide to HBOMax as a partner in terms of not only new viewer acquisition but also, current subscriber retention, noting:

“You’re getting to a point to where justifying paying $10 a month just for wrestling content is going to be very difficult for all but the most hardcore of consumers. Somebody who probably watches wrestling one out of every three pay-per-views probably wouldn’t. AEWs advantage is they have on average 1 million linear cable viewers week to week. Most of those people probably have access to an HBO Max so I would imagine it’s more valuable for HBO Max to have that content on HBO Max so they can grow their subscription base and retain it. Of those 1 million AEW fans, if let’s say half of them subscribe to HBO Max, that’s a solid 400,000 fans and subscribers who are going to drop off at a lower rate than your average subscriber.”

While the overall viewership week to week for AEW Dynamite tends to hover around 1 million viewers, Pandit sees this as not an indicator of a failure to thrive, rather of a stable fanbase, saying:

“They’re loyal, they want to see new content. Is a baseline of a million viewers something Tony can sell as an advantage for him? Yes, the question is what is the price he’s going to get for that? Now as we see more consolidation in the industry and their partnership primarily with WarnerMedia that’s being run by Discovery Executives, not Warner Executives, from all intensive purposes from what we have seen and I don’t know anyone in that organization, but they’re going to run a much leaner and meaner business than Warner had planned on running. Now does that mean AEW is going to get the kind of live rights media fees that they would’ve gotten a couple of years ago? I don’t know the answer to that but I think the advantage for AEW is that even at an increase to what they’re currently getting paid which is around 40-45 million a year, it’s still probably cheaper than scripted programming.”

All Elite Wrestling’s hardcore fan following seems poised to continue to build on its current success despite concerns surrounding their network partner, TBS and TNT being acquired by Discovery as a part of the acquisition of Warner Media to form the new, Warner Bros. Discovery.

It is unknown if Discovery+, the company’s own streaming service, would also be a potentially interested party in hosting the library of All Elite Wrestling content.

The catalog of exceptional wrestling content owned by Tony Khan has officially expanded upon the final completion of his acquisition of Ring of Honor and its content library.

Transcription via WrestlingInc.

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• HBOMax
• tony khan
• AEW
• wwe

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