The race to acquire AEW media partner Warner Bros. Discovery and further massively change the landscape of both streaming, broadcast and Hollywood heated up even more on Thursday.
The Hollywood Reporter reported that three official bids have come in for WBD from Netflix, NBCUniversal and Paramount/Skydance, noting they vary “for some or all” of WBD. It’s the first official salvo of many expected to come.
No details on the bids were revealed, but the New York Post reported that bids were submitted at noon “with deal insiders predicting a winning offer that will likely fall far short of the $30 a share that CEO David Zaslav said he wanted for the media conglomerate.”
They later added that WBD and David Zaslav are “expected to hold two, maybe three rounds of bidding to push the price up above the $23.50 that Paramount Skydance has already offered for the entire company, according to people close to the matter.”
Why this is relevant for wrestling fans is the broadcast future of AEW.
AEW is in year one of their current WBD TV contract that runs through 2027 with an option for 2028 that sees the weekly Dynamite and Collision shows on TBS/TNT simulcast on HBO Max, and the AEW content archives available on HBO Max. That deal also includes AEW PPVs available at a discount for HBO Max subscribers in addition to the new Tailgate Brawl PPV pre-shows that are also simulcast on TNT.
AEW head Tony Khan was both asked by Ariel Helwani on Tuesday and on a media call Thursday about his concerns and insights. Khan continued to be positive and confident about AEW’s relationship with Zaslav, saying they have continued to both grow and integrate into WBD through their changes and that support has been reciprocal.
Both NBCUniversal and Netflix have existing deals with WWE while Paramount kicks off their seven-year deal with TKO-owned UFC in January.
If TKO head Mark Shapiro has his way, WWE will remain on NBCUniversal for as long as the broadcaster wants them to.
As part of the media rounds ahead of Saturday’s WWE kickoff on the ESPN networks/streaming platform, Shapiro spoke to Puck’s John Ourand on his Varsity podcast.
In talking about the UFC media rights deal, Shapiro was discussing the benefits of having various TV partners. WWE then came up and in talking about ESPN and Netflix, he brought up Comcast (aka NBC Universal and said, “We’re not going to leave (NBCUniversal) as long as they want to be with us.”
The relationship between WWE and NBCU notably changed last month, bringing WWE PLEs to ESPN seven months earlier than contractually expected. Archive content will remain on the Peacock platform through the end of 2025 while NXT PLEs will remain through March 2026 as of now.
The changes also saw an adjustment to their Saturday Night’s Main Event broadcasts with the quarterly specials now airing exclusively on Peacock with SmackDown episodes available on the streamer 30 days after they initially air on USA.
Following the official expiration of their initial Peacock deal this March, WWE’s lone remaining deal with NBCU expires in October 2029. SmackDown did initially begin airing on USA several weeks earlier than expected (September 13) and it’s unclear if the contract date changed with that move.
Even though they have closed the book on WWE Raw’s next TV home, TKO leadership is already gearing up for their next big payday: the domestic rights package for WWE’s monthly premium live events.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media & Telecom Conference, TKO COO Mark Shapiro said that the current five-year deal with NBCUniversal to air the PLEs on Peacock is “underpriced.”
He didn’t blame either WWE or NBCU, saying that “the market catches up” but that the monthly events are “massively performing” for NBCU and higher than the expectations NBCU leadership had when they signed the deal.
Shapiro stated there is “insatiable demand” for the rights when they come up in 2026 and that they will look to renew with NBCU who has been a great partner who knows how to market WWE.
In January 2021, WWE announced that WWE Network would be heading to the Peacock streaming service in the U.S., later revealed as a five-year deal in the ballpark of $1 billion total.
When asked about whether Netflix would be interested in bringing on the domestic rights given they will have the international rights starting in January 2025, Shapiro said that with Netflix, Apple and other providers, the conversations always started with the question of when the PLE deal was up.
He said they want to walk before they run with Netflix, get out of the gate strong with Raw, and see how things go before talking about the domestic PLE rights if NBCUniversal doesn’t renew.
The exclusive WWE TV rights negotiating windows for both Fox and NBCUniversal have closed and the company can now officially solicit interest from the rest of the broadcast & streaming world.
The news was first reported by the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand who also included an interesting note about AEW & Warner Bros. Discovery.
While he noted incumbents traditionally remain the favorites, sources have indicated that Disney has shown interest but for FX as opposed to ESPN as the latter can’t guarantee a specific night of the week due to their rotating slate of games.
Marchand also stated that “Amazon Prime Video will be in talks for WWE, and you can see how it fits in their strategy,” given their NFL deal for Thursday night games and bidding for college football’s Big Ten conference.
Marchand also noted that he considers both Apple and Warner Bros. Discovery as dark horses candidates due to their NBA pursuits, but “one nugget I was told that may interest wrestling fans is that Warner Bros. Discovery does not have to stay exclusive to AEW. It would be something if it got in on WWE. But I don’t see it yet.”
The five-year deals with both NBCUniversal ($265 million/year for Raw) and Fox ($205 million/ year for SmackDown) expire in October 2024. WWE CEO Nick Khan has remained confident in the company getting a rights increase that could be 1.5x of what their current deals are.
*Update on C.M. Punk. AEW’s new television deal, issues a Saturday show has to deal with and pluses of a Saturday show
*Lots of news on WWE & AEW major shows the next few months, including All In, SummerSlam, Double or Nothing and Backlash.
*Nick Khan talks the WWE/UFC merer and what it means, upcoming negotiations, how Endeavor can help WWE grow, WWE budget cuts and more
*Full coverage of AAA TripleMania, the good, the bad, the angles and more
*Full coverage of New Japan’s U.S. tour in Washington, DC and Philadelphia
*Ted DiBiase Jr. indicted on 13 counts in welfare fraud cause, and updates on it
*Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show
*The most detailed look at the TV ratings from the past week, including where wrestling ranks with sports an with entertainment programing, competition, segment by segment, comparisons with last year and more
*Continuation of the CMLL champion of champions tournament
*Mercedes Mone in Japan, negotiation updates, her comments on Japan and more
*Details of the biggest women’s show in Japan in decades this weekend at the Yokohama Arena
*Ticket sale update on the show
*Cinderella tournament finals
*Champion Carnival update
*Notes on major NOAH show
*Will Ospreay talks future
*John Morrison’s boxing debut and comments form that
*Lots of notes on he death of Butch Miller
*Bill Goldberg and a retirement tour
*Abdullah the Butcher and financial issues
*NCAA looking at changes to wrestling rules and scoring and why
*Concert/wrestling joint promotions
*Major European show this weekend loaded with top international stars
*Impact major show rundown
*Lots of fallout to C.M. Punk returning to AEW
*Great lesson for AEW wen getting a big sports lead-in going forward
*Lots of injury updates
*Advanced ticket sales for WWE & AEW upcoming show
*Streaming numbers for WWE & AEW
*International TV ratings
*What milestone did Raw achieve this past week
*What milestone did AEW achieve this past week
*Lots of new UFC major fights
*What were the most in-demand sports tickets so far in 2023
*Former UFC fighter arrested in a $200,000 burglary
*More details on the new WWE Twitch deal
*WWE performer goes into another major sports competition next week and attempts to make the 2024 Olympic team
*Notes on two WWE signees that a betting site already has odds that one of them will be world champion by 2027
*Notes on all the WWE live events on the road over the past week
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Sunday Update
We did a show on Saturday that a lot of people have praised to us with Pat Laprade and Garrett Gonzales talking Andre the Giant, Bruno Sammartino , the Vince McMahon book, Dino Bravo and more. Bryan and I will be back tonight talking all the news from the weekend including more on Sammartino, Nate Diaz and Stardom.
I haven’t seen the Stardom show in its entirety but a lot of people have talked about it as show of the year. It was easily the biggest show in the history of the company. Mercedes Mone was heavily praised by those backstage and it has been noted she signed an extension and will remain with Bushiroad although we don’t have details on the length of the extension yet. But her next show will be 5/21 in Long Beach, CA at the Walter Pyramid.
We’re looking for your thoughts on the Stardom show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
The Tank Davis vs. Ryan Garcia boxing match last night, won by Davis, was gigantic with the general public. It got 3.5 million searches on Google which with how they do it now, is an unreal number. That’s ten times WrestleMania for a comparison. Aside from Climate Change, it’s the most searched for topic for a one day period of anything in April. The only other stuff related to boxing, wrestling or MMA that cracked the Google lists were yesterday with Nate Diaz at No. 18 due to the brawl and Sergei Pavloivich at No. 19, both at 50,000. Pavlovich won the UFC main event over Curtis Blaydes yesterday.
Jeff Shell, the CEO at NBCU, was forced out of the company after an investigation of what was called an inappropriate workplace relationship was finished. Shell today said today was his last day with the company due to an inappropriate relationship with a women and said “I’m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down, they are the most talented people in the business and the opportunity to work with them the last 19 years has been a privilege. Mike Cavanagh, the President of Comcast, will now run NBCU Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast, said “We built this company on a culture of integrity. Nothing is more important than how we treat each other.”
Nate Diaz was in a brawl Friday night on Boubron Street in Las Vegas after a boxing match that Chris Avila, a teammate, was in that night. Here is the footage. The person Diaz allegedly choked out in that brawl, Rodney Petersen, who resembles Logan Paul to the point that some thought it was Logan Paul choked out. Petersen vowed to knock Diaz out the next time he sees him.
We’re looking for reports from tonight’s WWE house show in Toledo, OH and today’s 1PW show in Doncaster, England to [email protected]
Kevin Owens appeared to injure his ankle last night in Fort Wayne, IN. It came during an Owens & Sami Zayn vs. Usos tag team title match. We’re not sure where but multiple people brought up that it was hurt during the match, he was limping and needed help to the back. He did come back, still limping, for the Cody Rhodes vs Solo Sikoa main event. We’ve heard nothing official on whether it was storyline or legit at this point. We’ll probably know if it’s serious based on if he works in Toledo tonight.
Results from last night in Fort Wayne, IN:
Ricochet b Ivar
Shotzi b Sonya Deville
Sheamus b Karrion Kross
Sami Zayn & Kevin Oewns b Usos to keep the tag titles when Zayn countered the 1-D into a sunset flip for the pin
LA Knight b Mustafa Ali – Ali played babyface
Natalya b Shayna Baszler
Cody Rhodes b Solo Sikoa in a match where the Usos interfered after a ref bump but Owens & Zayn attacked the Usos (thanks to Dean Michael Theriaul)
UFC officially announced Amanda Nunes vs. Julianna Pena for the women’s bantamweight title on 6/10 in Vancouver, BC. Aside from scattered singles, the show sold out as soon as tickets were put on sale to the public on Friday.
TNT will be airing a documentary on the Hulk Hogan lawsuit against Gawker on their TV show “Rich & Shameless.” No date was announced for the airing past it being in May.
The WWE is claiming Tuesday at the 60th anniversary of the WWE championship, claiming the first champion, Buddy Rogers, was champion on April 25, 1963. That’s the date they are using. The actual story is that Buddy Rogers was NWA world champion and on January 24 , 1963, in Toronto, the NWA, over the dissent of Vince McMahon Sr., ordered Rogers to drop the title to Lou Thesz, which happened. McMahon quit the NWA and continued to recognize Rogers as champion. His idea was just to pretend the match in Toronto never happened. But the media would not go along with that. Then he claimed Rogers beat Argentina Rocca in March in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in a fictitious match, to become the world champion so that’s well before the April date. There are historians who can give a week by week on it. On May 17, 1963, Rogers lost what was called the WWWF title to Bruno Sammartino in Madison Square Garden.
WWE will have two WWE Rivals shows on A&E tonight. The season for Biography ended last week with the Iron Sheik and Rivals ends tonight. At 9 p.m., it’ll be Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart and at 10 p.m. will be Austin vs Shawn Michaels.
This is the announced lineup for the Raw tour of Europe which is Wednesday in Birmingham, England, Thursday in Manchester, England, Friday in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Saturday in Paris, France: Cody Rhodes vs. Finn Balor, Bianca Belair vs. Bayley vs Asuka, Austin Theory vs. Bobby Lashelym, Seth Rollins vs. Miz, Dolph Ziggler vs. Daman Priest, Dexter Lumis vs. Bronson Reed, Chad Gable & Otis vs. Maximum Male Models and Rick Goobs vs Baron Corbin.
Rampage on 5/5 will air at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time and likely 2:30 p.m. Pacific due to sports on TNT.
Defy announced a show on 8/26 in London at the Electric Ballroom. This will be at Noon, the day before the AEW show at Wembley Stadium. Progress will also do a show at 4 p.m. in the same building. RevPro will be doing a show that day as well.
United Wrestling Coalition on Saturday night at the American Legion in New Egypt, NJ.
LFA announced events on 6/16 in Owensboro, KY at the Owensboro Sportscenter and 6/23 in Commerce, CA at the Commerce Casino. Both air on UFC Fight Pass.
Pro Wrestling Revolver on 5/6 in Clive, IA has Jon Moxley vs. Jake Crist, ami Callihan vs. Masha Slanvoich, Steve Maclin vs. Mike Bailey, Alex Shelle vs. Shigehiro Irie, David Finlay & Chris Bey & Ace Austin vs. Trey Miguel & Zachary Wejtz & Myron Red, Lince Dorado vs Rocky Romero, Rich Swann vs El Phantasmo vs Cas Jaxon vs. Damian Chambers and JT Dunn & Allie Katch vs. Jessicak & Matthew Palmer, plus Marina Shafir, Jake Manning, Steve Mands, Mathew Justice and Mance Warner and an appearance by Molly Holl.
Job Listing: Onlamp php/mysql developer. Experience with vbulletin and drupal/WordPress a plus. Email [email protected] with subject PHP DEVELOPER with resume.
The aftermath of the AEW brawl after All Out Why suspensions were lifted The CM Punk injury and how it changes things AEW video game promotion in Japan What people under suspension aren’t allowed to do Tony Khan position Clearing up some wrestling stories Ideas for AEW to improve the developmental rate of its young talent The most important thing for AEW long-term Ways to get wrestlers more time in the ring Ways to get wrestlers more time learning promos and angles Complete coverage of UFC 279 The life and death of UFC star Elias Theodorou Coverage of this past week’s Stardom PPV show How every wrestling show this past week did in the ratings, competition, football, where WWE & AEW fall in entertainment standings, how the segments on the major shows did Unique finish to set up CMLL tournament final Final build to the anniversary show CMLL star undergoes surgery Promotion talk about new reality show idea Stardom Five Star Grand Prix update New Japan and Stardom business rundowns, profits, losses, revenue, streaming numbers Kota Ibushi update Yuji Nagata celebrates 30 years in the ring New Japan Strong TV for the future Talk about the Desperado vs. Jun Kasai bloodbath Generational dream match announced between 80 legend and modern legend Konosuke Takeshita’s ten year anniversary Ricky Steamboat returns to the ring How viewing is changing Story behind Steamboat’s comeback More on movies about 80s stars and a movie on the life of modern star Hall of Famer from Japan wants match with Moxley Wrestling cartoon show canceled Latest on WBD and wrestling More AEW injury news Ticket sale numbers for WWE & AEW shows International TV numbers Streaming numbers More on the business of doing major shows Commission examining UFC backstage brawl More Clash at the Castle news WWE projected revenue for this year Why Raw will have a problem next week Gable Steveson update New talent coming to NXT A&E bio news
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Friday News Update
Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing a show tonight covering the news of the week.
The biggest media story which is far bigger than pro wrestling is about the proposed merger of NBCU and WBD, with the idea of it being attempted in 2024. These type of mergers in media and putting it in control of just a few people is a sad and also dangerous state of affairs. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk, Arya Whitner and many others)
Jordan Burroughs became the first American in history to win seven world or Olympic championships at the senior level earlier today by beating Mohammad Nokhodilarimi of Iran 4-2 in the 174 pound final of the World Wrestling Championships. Burroughs has world championships in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2022 to go along with a 2012 gold medal. He breaks the record set by John Smith and Adeline Gray, who both have won six world titles.
David Taylor at 189 pounds defeated Hassan Yazdani of iran by a 7-1 score to win another world title for the U.S. Zain Retherford a 154 pounds won a silver medal, losing to Taishi Narikuni of Japan 10-0. Thomas Gilman, Kyle Dake and J’Den Cox will be in finals tomorrow. The U.S. is well ahead of Iran looking to win the team championship. This looks to be the strongest overall U.S. team in recent memory. Kyle Snyder will start competing tomorrow.
Smackdown tonight in Anaheim, CA has Brawling Brutes vs. Imperium vs. New Day vs. Hit Row with the winners getting a shot at the Usos for the tag titles on 10/8 in Philadelphia, Sami Zayn vs. Ricochet, Bayley vs. Raquel Rodriguez, plus Ronda Rousey and Logan Paul appear. Paul will set up his 11/5 match with Roman Reigns in Saudi Arabia and WWE is holding a press conference tomorrow in Las Vegas to announce the match.
Roman Reigns makes a rare house show appearance on 9/24 in Vancouver, BC defending the title against A.J. Styles.
We are looking for reports from Smackdown tonight in Anaheim with dark matches as well as from the weekend house shows in Bakersfield CA tomorrow and Oakland, CA on Sunday to [email protected]
The only weekend poll will be on the CMLL Anniversary show from Arena Mexico which is taking place right now. You can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match to [email protected]
UFC tomorrow is a full ESPN+ show starting at 4 p.m. Eastern
Nikolas Motta (155) vs Cameron VanCamp (155.5)
Tony Gravely (135.5) vs. Javid Basharat (135.5)
Mariya Agapova (125.5.) vs. Gillian Robertson (125)
Trey Ogden (156) vs. Daniel Zellhuber (155)
Denise Gomes (115) vs. Loma Lookboonmee (115.5)
Trevin Giles (170) vs. Louis Cosce (170.5)
Damon Jackson (145.5) vs. Pat Sabatini (145.5)
Anthony Hernandez (185.5) vs. Marc-Andre Barriault (185)
Tanner Boser (229) vs. Rodrigo Nascimento (261)
Joe Pfyer (185) vs. Alen Amedovski (186.5)
Andre Fili (145.5) vs. Bill Algeo (146)
Chidi Njokuani (185.5) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (185.5)
Cory Sandhagen (135.5) vs. Song Yadong (135.5)
Amedovski missed weight. The Sara McMann vs. Aspen Ladd fight was canceled when Ladd missed weight by two pounds.
A story on Jay Dumont, a web site member who has been battling health issues and a lot of people in wrestling who have become friends of his.
WWE
The company announced its post-Christmas shows and interesting that for what is usually the best week of the year to draw, they aren’t running on 12/27:
12/26 in Columbus, OH for Raw
12/28 in Cleveland
12/28 in Greensboro
12/29 in Miami
12/30 in Toronto
12/30 in Tampa
1/1 in Atlanta for the Day 1 PPV show
WWE on Peacock has released a Hispanic Heritage show featuring some current and old matches. The old matches include Roy Shire vs. Rito Romero from 1954, featuring the future Hall of Fame promoter against the inventor of the Romero special, the 1971 Pedro Morales title win over Ivan Koloff in Madison Square Garden, and the 1977 Superstar Billy Graham vs. Mil Mascaras WWWF title match where Mascaras refused to do the job and they had to do a DQ finish instead.
UFC
Terrence McKinney has tried to get the attention of Dwayne Johnson . The UFC and Johnson made a deal for Project Rock footwear to be the official footwear of UFC fighters. The fighters have to wear the stuff but they aren’t getting paid. McKinney asked Johnson to try and push that the fighters get a cut.
Combate Global tonight on Paramount + at 11 p.m. Eastern is headlined by Miguel Gonzalez (5-1) vs Edir Belico Terry (8-4) in a bantamweight fight. The co-main at 150 pounds has Jose Ferreira (8-0) vs Patrick Lehane (5-1)
AIW on 10/1 in Akron, OH at the Tadmor Shrine with a meet and greet with Jimmy Hart and the Nasty Boys.
Defy on 10/8 at the Kliever Armory in Portland, Or, as Christopher Daniels defending the Defy title against Serve Strickland. Kevin Sullivan also manages tag champions Midnight Heat against the Bollywood Boyz in a 3 stage of hate match, plus Ortiz vs. Adam Ryder.
Invicta on 9/28 on AXS TV in the U.S. and Fight Network in Canada with an 8 p.m. Eastern time start is headlined by Maiju Suotma (8-6) vs. Ketlen Souza (11-3) plus former Ultimate Fighter competitors Kaytin Neil (5-4) faces Hannah Guy (4-1). The show takes place in Hinton, OK at the Sugar Creek Casino.
Spike Trivet vs. Drew Parker for the Progress World title headlines Sunday’s show at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, UK. Kanji & Allie Katch face Lana Austin & Skye Smitson, tag champs Sunshine Machine defend against Kings of the North and Matt Cardona defends his Internet title against Gene Munny.
Mads Krugger vs. Mance Warner has been added to Sunday’s MLW TV taping in Norcross, GA.
LFA tonight on UFC Fight Pass at 9 p.m. Eastern from Prior Lake, MN and the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel:
Manatua Lemarie (189) vs. Adam Vigil (189.6)
Zach Vaci (135.2) vs. Rob Fenicle (135.8)
Giovanna Canuto (115.6) vs. Jamie Colleen Miller (116)
Sean McFadden (135.6) vs. Michael Cyr (136)
Thomas Peterson (257) vs. Kory Moegenburg (253.2)
Jacqueline Amorim (115) vs. Ashley Nichols (115) for the strawweight title
WWE is producing a new scripted series based on a fictional pro wrestling promotion for NBCUniversal.
It was announced today that WWE and Universal Content Productions have partnered together for the drama series “Pinned.” Here’s the description for the show:
An adrenalized upstairs-downstairs soap that gives a behind-the-scenes look at a fictional wrestling promotion and the unforgettable characters that populate it. ‘Pinned’ offers a front-row seat into the eccentric wrestling culture and the mayhem that exists between the locker room and the boardroom.
Writer and producer Craig O’Neill, Fox Sports reporter Tom Rinaldi, and WWE’s Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, and Chris Kaiser will be executive producers for the series.
“Executive Vice President: WWE Television” is Kaiser’s job title.
Which network NBCUniversal plans for “Pinned” to air on hasn’t been decided. Further information on when the show could be premiering also hasn’t been revealed.
WWE is also currently developing the scripted series “The United States of America vs. Vince McMahon” with Blumhouse Television. That series is about McMahon and the WWF’s 1994 steroid trial. It was announced yesterday that Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue will write and be the showrunners of the series.
Peacock is reviewing the entire WWE Network video library and removing content that does not align with its standards and practices. That information comes via a report from The Hollywood Reporter.
THR cites sources that say that Peacock is reviewing all WWE content in its archive and making WWE aware of any editing.
THR specifically states that Peacock has removed “Rowdy” Roddy Piper vs. Bad News Brown from WrestleMania VI, where Piper appeared in half-blackface, as PW Insider first reported. The other specific segment mentioned in the article as being edited out comes from Survivor Series 2005, where Vince McMahon used the n-word in a backstage segment with John Cena and Booker T.
News broke on Monday, January 25 that WWE and NBCUniversal had reached a deal where WWE would license the WWE Network to Peacock in the United States for five years and a reported $1 billion.
Last Sunday’s Fastlane PPV was the first of the Peacock era, but was still simulcast on WWE Network, which will remain a standalone service in the United States until April 4.
WWE announced Monday that the WWE Network will launch on NBCU’s Peacock streaming service starting Thursday, March 18th with the standalone service ending on April 4th.
However, the automatic migration for current Network subscribers that was thought to be part of the move is not happening after all, confirming recent reports that said as much.
From the release:
“To continue streaming WWE Network content, fans will need to sign up for Peacock. As previously announced, WWE Network, including all PPVs, will be available on Peacock Premium for $4.99—a $5.00/month savings.” They are currently offering a special $2.50/month offer for the next four months while Comcast and Cox subscribers can get Peacock for free.
The WWE Network will remain active for U.S. subscribers through April 4th with April’s WrestleMania 37 fully exclusive on Peacock. It’s unclear whether an existing Network user signing up for Peacock will automatically cancel an existing WWE Network subscription or if an additional action is needed.
After signing up, Peacock streamers can access every PPV show from the last calendar year, every WrestleMania, the most recent/current episodes of Broken Skull Sessions, Chronicle and Icons, NXT the day after it airs on USA, both Raw and SmackDown episodes 30 days after they air live, WWE documentaries and more. The release said the entire WWE Network archive will be available on Peacock by this August’s SummerSlam.
The Verge reported Monday that match markers won’t be making the trip from the Network, but that Peacock is working on “visual scrub bar previews to help viewers find what they want when fast-forwarding through WWE videos.” Additionally, the search functionality won’t be as robust but that is expect to be improved through time.
Peacock’s free tier will also feature a WWE channel with select WWE original shows, reality TV shows like Total Bellas, recent in-ring content, and new episodes of Raw Talk and The Bump.
In late-January, WWE and NBCU announced the Network would move to Peacock in a deal rumored to be five years and more than $1 billion.
Young Rock — the premiere of the new NBC series based on the life of Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson and his family — did 5.034 million viewers in the overnight ratings.
Tuesday’s kickoff garnered the third-highest audience for network TV on the night behind CBS’ NCIS (5.6 million) and NBC’s This Is Us (5.5 million).
In the demos, Young Rock did a 0.4 in 18-34, 0.9 in 18-49 and 1.4 in 24-34, all second behind This Is Us.
The show featured Johnson in 2032 as he is preparing to run for U.S. president, reflecting on his upbringing through three different periods of his life: 1982 when he was 10, 1987 when he was 15, and 1992 when he was 20 and starting his football career at the University of Miami.
The debut featured actors playing Rocky Johnson, Ata, Andre The Giant, The Wild Samoans, Junkyard Dog and the Iron Shiek during the 1982 time period in Hawaii.
Next week’s show will focus on the 1987 time period.
WWE’s coffers are reportedly getting even more full as both the Wall Street Journal and Sports Business Journal reported Monday that the deal to move WWE Network under the NBCU Peacock Premium streaming service is for five years and more than $1 billion.
WWE president Nick Khan told The Wrap that the deal wasn’t due to cost cutting, but more for exposure:
“Peacock is free in the [24 million] Comcast cable and Cox cable homes, as I’m sure you know, so…for the first time ever, WrestleMania, which is our Super Bowl, is going to be available for free to those homes. In addition to that, it cuts the cost for our consumers from $9.99 a month for WWE Network to $4.99 a month on the ad-supported tier of Peacock, where they’ll get not only WWE but EPL (English Premier League), “The Office,” Dick Wolf and so many other titles.”
Khan also said WWE is happy with their Fox deal with multiple years left, so nothing has changed there. He later told SBJ’s John Ourand they are done doing deals in the U.S. “for a while” and that this is a multi-year deal that extends past their current TV contracts with NBCU and Fox. He said they spoke to several media companies about a deal but WWE’s thirty-year relationship with NBC made a difference.
The news broke Monday morning that in the United States, WWE Network is moving to Peacock’s premium tier starting on March 18th at potentially half the cost as their ad-supported service is $4.99/month while their ad-free option is $9.99/month.
Peacock chief revenue officer Rick Cordella told The Wrap that they wanted to expanded the accessibility of WWE content and experience a “halo effect” for WWE viewers for other content:
“So our overall goal, and why I think NBCU decided to move forward with this deal, is that we believe we can expand the accessibility of this content, right? That we can — through NBCU marketing, through the outlets that we have, all the various media outlets, through the price point reduction, through the addition of content — that we can grow this audience significantly that currently watched it. And that will have downstream impact to the rest of WWE and those TV ratings, hopefully, that you see on linear television, as well as to Peacock. There is a halo effect to those users coming in for WrestleMania, but then sticking around and watching “The Office,” watching “Yellowstone,” watching some of the great content we have in the 30,000 hours that are now bundled in with their subscription price.”
Cordella also spoke to SBJ about the deal and mentioned a live WrestleMania as a cornerstone of the service, which would indicate a big promotional push following the changeover.
The latest service preparing to enter the streaming wars Wednesday will feature WWE programming.
In a Tuesday story on Variety, NBCUniversal’s Peacock service announced a total of 20,000 hours for premium subscribers with 100 of those hours being WWE content available in August. While they didn’t list everything that will make up that 100 hours, series like WWE Untold, Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions, and compilations like John Cena’s Best WrestleMania Matches were given as examples. Recent editions of WWE Raw will not be part of the premium service.
USA Network, the home of Raw for decades, is owned by NBCUniversal. WWE re-upped with the conglomerate in 2018 for a five year deal worth $1.3 billion.
Similar to the WWE Network, Peacock will also have a free tier, but there was no WWE programming listed. The service will be available everywhere consumers get their traditional streaming services with the exception of Roku or Amazon Fire TV.
