WWE officially announced this week the television deals that had been reported on weeks ago, with Raw staying on Monday night on the USA Network and Smackdown moving to a live Friday night from 8-10 p.m. time slot on FOX.
The deals will run from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2024.
The WWE released information that the total worldwide value of its television deals, which were $215 million last year (this includes both U.S. and the rest of the world), increases to $235 million this year. In 2019, with the big deals kicking in for the last three months, it would be up to $314 million.
The combination of the FOX and USA Network deals would be $435 million in 2020, $462 million in 2021, and escalate past $470 million in 2022. Right now the company is estimating $79 million for television rights outside the U.S. in 2020 and $80 million in 2021, but those numbers because of the various deals that haven’t come due, can change, meaning a projection of $542 million in 2021.
WWE officially announced what had been widely reported on for the last month: SmackDown will be moving to Fox in October of 2019, while Raw will remain on the USA Network.
The company put out a press release today officially announcing the five-year agreement. SmackDown will air on Fridays starting on October 4, 2019 on the FOX network. It will remain a two-hour broadcast.
“WWE and FOX are a perfect match,” Vince McMahon said. “Moving SmackDown LIVE to broadcast TV and having the ability to leverage FOX’s extensive portfolio of world-class sporting events will expand the reach of our flagship programming.”
Meanwhile, WWE concurrently announced that Monday Night Raw will continue on the USA Network in what is also a five-year deal with NBC Universal. It will start in October 2019.
“Monday Night Raw and USA Network have dominated Monday nights during a truly historic run,” Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks for NBCUniversal Cable was quoted as saying.“Our partnership with WWE is one of the strongest and most successful in the business, and together we’ll take Raw to even greater heights.”
These agreements increase the average annual value (AAV) of WWE’s U.S. distribution to 3.6 times that of the prior deal with NBCU.
Although the deal hasn’t been officially announced, news about WWE SmackDown’s move to Fox in the fall of 2019 continues to come out.
Industry publication The Wrap reported Wednesday that the show will indeed remain live when it moves to Friday nights on the network.
As previously reported, Fox’s deal with WWE for the Blue Brand is rumored to be five years and just north of $1 billion. That would pair with NBCUniversal’s rumored five year, $265 million renewal of Raw reported by the Hollywood Reporter, bringing WWE’s new TV contract haul to $2.35 billion over five years.
In related news, the Hollywood Reporter ran a story Wednesday detailing the behind-the-scenes negotiations on how the Fox deal came together. Sources told THR that NBCU was expecting to keep Raw and SmackDown for $360 million over 10 years.
There were many interesting details in the the pro-WWE story including the following paragraph:
“The elder Murdoch insisted NBCU was “embarrassed by your product.” Fox, he said, would fully embrace WWE, with SmackDown promos airing across sports programming every night of the week, along with a weekly studio show on FS1. More than that, the deal, Lachlan Murdoch told McMahon during a private call at the end of the meeting, would herald the marriage of the Murdochs and the McMahons, rebel outsiders who had built media empires. (McMahon’s father, Vince, took over WWE from his father in the ’80s.)”
And then, this:
“”We could not sell UFC” at Fox, says a former staffer. “And wrestling is family friendly. If you have wrestling you can find cash. I think it’s a big win for Fox; it’s a great trade-off.”
WWE’s television rights picture continues to fall into place.
The Hollywood Reporter published another story on the rights agreements today, mostly focusing on how Fox’s deal for SmackDown came together. The story also clarifies some details on NBC Universal keeping Raw on the USA Network, noting that sources say it’s a five-year deal that’s worth $265 million per year.
News broke on May 21st that WWE and Fox had agreed to a deal to bring SmackDown to Fox’s main broadcast channel starting in the fall of 2019. That’s worth $205 million annually and is also for five years. SmackDown will be moving back to Friday nights on Fox, and the Hollywood Reporter refers to it as a live show.
In total, the two agreements, which will both go into effect in October 2019, are worth $2.35 billion over five years. That far exceeds the $240-300 million per year that most analysts were expecting WWE to get for their combined TV package.
Here are other notes from the Hollywood Reporter article:
– The deal for SmackDown was agreed to with a handshake at a meeting at 21st Century Fox’s headquarters in New York City on May 17th. Stephanie McMahon, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, and WWE co-presidents Michelle Wilson and George Barrios were at the meeting, along with agent Nick Khan of CAA and Alan Gold of Evolution Media (which is partially owned by CAA). CAA represented WWE in negotiations, with The Wrap reporting in April that WME had brought them in to secure a “checks and balances” system as WME was also negotiating the UFC’s deal.
On the Fox side, Rupert Murdoch, Peter Rice (chairman and CEO of Fox Network Groups), and Fox Sports executives Eric Shanks and Larry Jones were present. Murdoch’s son, Lachlan, attended via phone. Negotiations lasted for two and a half hours.
– An “enormous” TV screen in the conference room where the meeting was held showed an image of Ronda Rousey holding Levesque in a fireman’s carry at WrestleMania 34. There were Fox and FS1 logos displayed on the picture.
– Rupert Murdoch claimed that NBC Universal was “embarrassed” by WWE’s product and that Fox would promote SmackDown on their sports programming every night of the week. Murdoch also said that FS1 would broadcast a weekly WWE-focused studio show.
– Rice had asked Khan to meet with Fox immediately if NBC Universal didn’t exercise an option to retain SmackDown, and the sides met the day after NBCU’s exclusive negotiating window ended. NBCU had the right to match any bid up to $200 million per year for SmackDown but decided to focus on keeping Raw.
– NBC Universal was expecting to retain Raw and SmackDown with a 10-year agreement for $360 million annually at one point.
WWE stock crossed $60 per share for the first time today, though it’s currently at $59.47. That’s under a one percent increase on the day.
They also noted that WWE is said to have gotten an even higher bid for SmackDown that wasn’t from NBC Universal or Fox, but “WWE executives are said to have embraced Fox’s commitment to heavily promote SmackDown across a robust sports portfolio that includes the NFL and Major League Baseball.” Facebook and Amazon had been mentioned as possible destinations for the show.
WWE stock is currently above $57 per share, which is an 11 percent increase on the day.
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It appears that the second shoe has dropped in WWE television rights negotiations.
Following last week’s Hollywood Reporter story on the USA Network retaining Raw but letting SmackDown go up for bidding, ESPN sports business analyst Darren Rovell reported today that WWE and Fox have agreed in principle on a deal for Fox to become the new home of SmackDown. Exact financial numbers weren’t immediately disclosed, but Rovell wrote that sources described Fox’s offer as “massive.”
The Wrap also reported on the deal, adding that SmackDown will begin airing on Fox’s main broadcast channel in the fall of 2019 and will be moved to Friday nights when that happens. SmackDown previously aired on Fridays in a taped format for much of its history.
Officials from WWE and Fox have not commented on the reports.
In the most recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer wrote that the USA Network/NBC Universal paying as much as three times more for Raw than they did in the previous deal, as the Hollywood Reporter claimed, would mean that WWE would be getting around $240 million annually for Raw alone and that analysts had been expecting $240-300 million for Raw and SmackDown together.
With UFC on the doorstep of the end of their seven-year deal with Fox, we get into the wayback machine for the August 18, 2011, edition of the WGAM MMA Show* and get out at the week the news broke.
Yours truly and co-host/producer PJ Huot talked about what we knew about the then-announced deal and what we thought it could mean for the promotion’s future on PPV and how their calendar would look. Given everything that’s happened since then, it’s a fun listen.
We then went to an interview with Duane Ludwig who was fresh off a sensational UFC on Versus fight against Amir Sadollah the week prior, a bout that was one of my favorite of all time. The now-retired fighter talked about that fight, his large memorabilia collection and getting autographs from guys like Joe Rogan and Fedor, and the controversy over his four second knockout that wasn’t a four second knockout.
*The WGAM MMA Show was a weekly program for ESPN NH that lasted for nearly a year…until it was canceled.
UFC announced yesterday a new television deal with Fox Networks Group Latin America.
FNG will air UFC pay-per-view events, Fight Nights, the Ultimate Fighter reality show, and other events with the new deal that starts on Saturday with the Stipe Miocic vs. Junior Dos Santos headlined UFC 211.
That fight will be Miocic’s second defense of the UFC heavyweight title. He previously defended it against Alistair Overeem in the main event of UFC 203 in Cleveland last September.
The new deal will reach a number of countries, although it does not include Brazil as UFC has an existing deal in that country, nor Mexico, where UFC has worked with Televisa. However, FNG will become UFC’s home in Mexico in 2019.
The PPV events starting in August will air live on FOX Premium Action. The PPV prelims will air on both Fox Sports 2 and FOX Premium Action.
On Wednesday, the UFC announced two fights for their 12/19 big FOX show in Orlando, headlined by UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos against Donald Cerrone.
The first is the featherweight debut of Myles Jury as he drops down a weight class to face Charles Oliveira. Jury comes into his new division having gone 15-1 as a lightweight, his only loss coming at the hands of Cerrone in January. Oliveira was last seen awkwardly losing a first round affair against Max Holloway in Saskatoon, Canada, due to a freak torn esophagus injury that stopped the fight early.
Also announced was the UFC debut of Karolina Kowalkiewicz, a 7-0 fighter from Poland, against Randa Markos. Markos went to the semifinals in the TUF women’s strawweight title tournament, losing to eventual title challenger Jessica Penne. Markos last won a decision over Aisling Daly at UFC 186.
