Published: Aug 6, 2025 by Jamie Toolan | Last Updated: Aug 6, 2025 by Jamie Toolan
Jamie has been covering the world of wrestling for four years and currently holds the position of Assistant Editor of WrestleTalk.com. During his time working for WrestleTalk.com he has written and published over 4,000 news and feature articles covering events and happenings from WWE, AEW, TNA and a variety of international and independent wrestling promotions.
WWE
More details on the new deal between WWE and ESPN have been revealed, including the length and value of the agreement, as well as how many PLEs are planned in 2026.
As previously reported, WWE and ESPN announced a major new deal that will see WWE PLEs air on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service which is set to launch on August 21.
Now, further details have been reported regarding the deal that WWE and ESPN didn’t include in their press release, courtesy of CNBC.
WWE and ESPN’s deal is reportedly five years in length, with ESPN paying an average of $325 million per year – a big increase on the $180 million per year average which WWE has been receiving from its existing deal with Peacock.
In addition, 10 Premium Live Events are planned to take place each year throughout the length of the deal, with some events simulcasting on ESPN’s linear networks as well as the new ESPN streaming service which will cost $29.99 a month.
WWE has held 12 PLEs across the main roster and NXT thus far in 2025, with four more events announced for the remainder of the year.
Despite WWE PLEs moving to ESPN in 2026, SmackDown will continue to be available to stream on Peacock as well as airing live on the USA Network.
We will provide further updates on the deal as/when more information becomes available.
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