WWE Has ‘Big Time’ Interest In Huge TV Rights Partner

WWE

WWE reported has “big time” interest in a partnership with an interested party in the TV rights negotiation process.

Earlier today, it was reported that Disney could be interested in a partnership with WWE to bring their content to FX.

It was also reported that Amazon Prime Video could also be a strong contender for media rights.

WrestleVotes has now provided further insight into the TV rights negotiation and revealed that Disney has “big time interest” from WWE.

According to WrestleVotes:

“Regarding the TV rights negotiations, there is big time interest from WWE in a Disney partnership.

“Not to say the other parties involved aren’t enticing, but Disney is viewed as a win win if that’s ultimately the decision.”

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics explored the numbers for Disney-owned FX and stated:

“As of Feb, Disney-owned FX was in 75M homes. USA Network, about 74M.

“USA’s 2022 average primetime viewership (largely driven by WWE) was 738k (224k in 18-49). FX averaged 462k (170k in 18-49).”

As reported by New York Post, Comcast pays $265 million per year to put WWE Raw on USA Network and Fox pays $205 million per year for WWE SmackDown.

Both contracts are set to expire in October 2024 and negotiation is well underway for new contracts.

For FX, New York Post’s Andrew Marchand notes that the audience that WWE would bring to FX would be a “boon”, especially with scripted content moving to streaming and commercial free channels.

He also notes that FX would be a likely home for WWE content as “ESPN is a sports network” and while conceding that wrestling is “athletic entertainment”, Marchand doesn’t believe it would “fully work” on a linear ESPN.

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