Tag: aew tv deal

AEW announces Latin America & Caribbean streaming deal

Posted on by Josh Nason

AEW has announced a streaming deal, but not the one North American fans have been waiting for.

The company has signed a multi-year deal with TelevisaUnivision to bring AEW’s weekly TV programming and other content to the premium tier of the ViX streaming service, available throughout Mexico and some Latin America and Caribbean countries.

ViX is described as “the first large-scale streaming service to exclusively serve the Spanish-speaking world.”

Starting Wednesday, Dynamite, Rampage and Collision will all stream live on the service at the same time they air in North America. The press release did not specifically indicate if those would be with Spanish language commentary.

The deal also includes the quarterly Battle of the Belts series and pay-per-views 30 days after they initially happen. Additionally, all episodes of AEW Dark and AEW Dark Elevation are available with Spanish language commentary.

The press release did not indicate whether subscribers will have access to past episodes of Dynamite, Rampage and Collision.

May 15, 2023 Observer Newsletter: AEW’s big announcements, WWE Backlash recap

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

A number of announcements will take place on 5/17 regarding the future of AEW.

WBD will have its upfronts for advertisers that day at the Hulu Theater adjacent to Madison Square Garden which is expected to include the announcement of the new Collision show on Saturday night.

With that show will come a new deal with WBD, the announcement of the 6/17 debut date, believed to be at the United Center in Chicago, and the return of C.M. Punk on a show called “The Second Coming.”

Tony Khan already mentioned a big announcement and said it would be made next week “on TNT,” meaning that the announcement, besides at the Upfronts, will be on TNT, prior to Dynamite that night on TBS.

There are a lot of rumors going around regarding the new deal, from its length and its monetary value. Obviously, if this is not just a deal for a second show at a similar rate and picking up the option year by WBD, which would end at the end of September 2024, it would be among the biggest news stories in wrestling of this decade.

Subscribers can read this week’s issue here.

WOR Video: AEW’s big announcement for next week

Posted on by F4W Staff

AEW is set to make some big announcements next Wednesday.

Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed the AEW news on Wrestling Observer Radio Thursday morning. Meltzer reiterated that this is a new television deal that is starting from scratch, similar to when AEW signed a new television deal in 2020.

“AEW will be exclusive to Warner Bros. Discovery,” Meltzer said. “All of the product that will be taped will be on their platforms.”

Meltzer did not know, however, anything regarding the length of the contract or monetary figures. He also did not know the status of a proposed brand split, saying that the idea has been off and on.

“At one point it was no, at other points it was yes,” he said. “One of the things we heard was that the key women have to be on both shows because there’s not enough depth to split them up.”

WWE will also likely retaliate, though what they may ultimately do is anyone’s guess.

“I don’t see WWE going to add a Saturday night show, but will they go against WWE pay-per-views many times a year,” Meltzer said. He also mentioned that WWE may put NXT pay-per-views head-to-head with the Saturday show, though that may be bad for NXT.

Ultimately, the news coming next week will be good news long-term for AEW, coming off of selling over 60,000 tickets for their Wembley Stadium event in August.

“People who were wishing for the demise of the company and things like that, they really had a bad week this past week,” Meltzer said.

AEW has a lot of big announcements for next week: Wrestling Observer Radio

Posted on by F4W Staff

AEW is set to make some big announcements next Wednesday.

Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed the AEW news on Wrestling Observer Radio Thursday morning. Meltzer reiterated that this is a new television deal that is starting from scratch, similar to when AEW signed a new television deal in 2020.

“AEW will be exclusive to Warner Bros. Discovery,” Meltzer said. “All of the product that will be taped will be on their platforms.”

Meltzer did not know, however, anything regarding the length of the contract or monetary figures. He also did not know the status of a proposed brand split, saying that the idea has been off and on.

“At one point it was no, at other points it was yes,” he said. “One of the things we heard was that the key women have to be on both shows because there’s not enough depth to split them up.”

WWE will also likely retaliate, though what they may ultimately do is anyone’s guess.

“I don’t see WWE going to add a Saturday night show, but will they go against WWE pay-per-views many times a year,” Meltzer said. He also mentioned that WWE may put NXT pay-per-views head-to-head with the Saturday show, though that may be bad for NXT.

Ultimately, the news coming next week will be good news long-term for AEW, coming off of selling over 60,000 tickets for their Wembley Stadium event in August.

“People who were wishing for the demise of the company and things like that, they really had a bad week this past week,” Meltzer said.

AEW, WBD to announce new TV rights deal next Wednesday

Posted on by Josh Nason

A new TV rights deal between AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery will be announced as part of the latter’s upfront next Wednesday in New York City.

The news comes from our Dave Meltzer.

Meltzer said both the deal and the much-discussed AEW Collision show will be announced at the Wednesday, May 17th event at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Upfronts are events held by networks designed to drive advertiser interest in upcoming slates of programming.

The amount of years and money on the new deal are unknown, nor who will be in attendance from AEW.

As was reported by Andrew Zarian previously, the new deal gives WBD exclusivity on AEW programming which is why both Dark and Dark: Elevation recently ended on YouTube. 

As Zarian, and now Meltzer, noted, the deal does not include any Ring of Honor programming which lives on Khan’s HonorClub subscription service.

In January 2020, AEW and then-WarnerMedia announced a four-year extension of their previous deal that runs through the end of this year. That extension called for $175 million total with an option year at “a significantly increased price” according to Meltzer.

ITV announces initial framework of AEW UK TV deal

Posted on by Josh Nason

With a week to go, AEW’s UK TV deal was finally announced Wednesday afternoon but left some fans frustrated at what they learned.

British free-to-air network ITV’s wrestling account tweeted that AEW Dynamite will air on their ITV 4 channel on Sundays at 8:20 AM with one-hour highlight shows airing on their main network Mondays at 11:45 PM.

Reaction from fans on Twitter wasn’t overwhelmingly positive, focusing on the delay from Wednesday to Sunday. However, the wording on the tweets seemed to indicate some details are yet to be worked out or announced:

“Announcement! ITV is to show brand new weekly wrestling show AEW: Dynamite on free to air television from next month. The run will start with the full two hour show on @ITV4 on Sun 6 Oct at 0820 followed by a one hour highlights programme on ITV on Mon 7 Oct at 11.45pm.

Shows will run sequentially leading up to PPV events, including before 9 November Full Gear, so more details, including subsequent schedule information, to follow soon…”

AEW president Tony Khan said as much, tweeting “We’ll work together to ensure there will always be a free to air broadcast of the most recent episode of AEW: Dynamite before Saturday PPVs including Full Gear. We’ll also be announcing a live viewing solution soon for the UK + many other countries with great AEW fans. Thank you!”

Our Dave Meltzer said there is more to the deal, but there is nothing to report at this time.

Report: AEW TV deal to be announced at WarnerMedia upfronts

Posted on by Bryan Rose

According to a new report, All Elite Wrestling could be announcing a television deal as soon as next week.

The Wrap reported this morning that the current plan is for AEW and WarnerMedia to announce a partnership one hour before WarnerMedia’s television upfronts on May 15, which will be held at Madison Square Garden. According to the report, AEW will be airing a weekly television show on TNT starting this fall. President Tony Khan and other wrestlers will reportedly be at the event as well, pitching to media buyers.

It was reported as early as this January that AEW were in negotiations for a television deal. In the meantime, AEW is set to hold a few events with their talent during the summer, including the Fight for the Fallen event on July 13 and Kenny Omega’s Fyter Fest card on June 29.

AEW’s next big event is Double or Nothing, which will take place May 25th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.