Tag: WWE on ESPN

Update on ESPN streaming service availability for cable & satellite users

Posted on by Josh Nason

This story was updated Thursday morning.

In a dizzying day of questions and answers regarding the availability of ESPN’s impending streaming service for existing cable & satellite subscribers, there are some updates that may make those subscribers a bit frustrated — at first, anyway.

This is especially pertinent for WWE fans given the news that the company’s full slate of premium live events will head to ESPN starting in April 2026 after WWE’s existing deal with Peacock ends.

Initially, it was reported by Alex Sherman of CNBC Wednesday that “cable subs will automatically get the ESPN (direct to consumer) product thru authentication.” That was followed by both Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and PWInsider reporting that only customers of Charter (Spectrum), DirecTV, FuboTV, Hulu Live TV, and Verizon Fios would have that luxury and that everyone else would need to pay for the service.

Sherman provided some updated reporting Thursday through his newsletter, verifying Thurston and PWInsider’s initial information and giving some hope for those that are customers of Xfinity, YouTube TV, and other major providers. He quipped that while WWE had the Attitude Era, this is the Confusion Era for ESPN.

“…I’m told discussions with all of these pay TV providers are ongoing, and Disney hopes to have most of them done by the end of the year. It’s still unclear to me at this point if Disney can accelerate some of these discussions if their pay TV carriage renewals aren’t until 2026. 

Long-term, ESPN plans to have authentication deals with every major pay TV distributor. Disney doesn’t want existing cable customers leaving the bundle just because ESPN is now available outside of it. 

But when the application is ready for showtime on Aug. 21, there are going to be a bunch of pay TV subscribers who aren’t going to get their authentication access that they’re paying for.”

The service that launches later this month will start at $29.99 per month or $300 for an annual subscription.

WWE to ESPN coverage:

Nick Khan clarifies how many yearly WWE PLEs are in ESPN deal

Posted on by Josh Nason

In the wake of Wednesday’s announcement that ESPN will be the future home of WWE premium live events, WWE president Nick Khan clarified exactly how many shows that will entail.

Khan spoke with Puck’s John Ourand about the deal and said that while the amount of shows always could grow, the current deal is for ten annual PLEs held over 12 nights as WrestleMania and SummerSlam will remain at two nights each.

When asked about whether unique shows like Evolution will be part of that, Khan said to assume that WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank, and Survivor Series are set and that they will continue to look at other shows, citing this month’s Clash in Paris as an example.

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Beginning in April 2026, the new deal is reportedly for five years and $1.6 billion, an increase from what WWE was getting from Peacock annually.

Khan talked about the ESPN deal in aggregate, noting that “The marketplace dictates the price on all things in my opinion. The media rights marketplace to any reasonable person looking at it, has become reflective, relatively speaking, of the U.S. economy where the upper tier products continue to go up and the premium content gets premium pricing.”

As he has done in the past, Khan said that “the middle” when it comes to TV rights are getting “squeezed a bit” and that fortunately for WWE fans, they are not in the middle.

Without saying what other entities were interested, Khan said interest in the package “was real.” He said that “timing always matters on these things” and explained how the initial Peacock PLE deal was made during the height of the pre-vaccine COVID-19 era where NBCU needed content as the Olympics were postponed.

He did not say, nor was he asked, if Peacock made a final bid or if they were given the option to do so.

Khan said the ESPN deal didn’t take as long as the newly-announced NFL/ESPN deal did as, “It was sort of clear. Here’s this subscriber base, here’s how we think we can grow it together, and this is the perfect platform for us and our subscribers.”

Khan said he had dealt with ESPN/Disney extensively in the past on potential WWE deals but that it just didn’t work for timing reasons.

“This time, it worked.”

Triple H: WWE PLEs will be ‘more of a spectacle than ever before’ on ESPN

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Following this morning’s huge announcement of WWE and ESPN’s new partnership, Paul “Triple H” Levesque made an appearance on the network to celebrate the news.

It was revealed this morning that WWE and ESPN have reached an agreement for WWE PLEs to air on ESPN’s new streaming service in the United States starting in 2026. The events will continue to stream on Peacock until that deal begins.

On ESPN’s Get Up, Levesque expressed his excitement for the partnership.

“There’s nothing bigger, there’s no bigger opportunity for us than this right now,” Levesque said about ESPN.

“Nick [Khan] and I have been thinking about it for a long time, of it is the right home for it. It’s something that we’ve been trying to work through for a long time. [ESPN Chairman] Jimmy Pitaro making it happen, it’s thrilling for us. Can’t be more excited.”

Levesque hyped that, with ESPN’s experience broadcasting huge events, WWE PLEs will be more of a spectacle than ever once this deal begins.

“From my point of view, nobody does large-scale, massive events like ESPN. Super Bowl, all of it, right? It’s what you do. And it’s what we like to think we do better than anybody else on the planet,” he said. “So this is the perfect marriage. When we get together, things like WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble are going to be bigger than ever. They’re going to be more of a spectacle than ever before. And we’re going to light the world on fire.”

The deal is reportedly worth $1.6 billion over five years, meaning WWE will receive $325 million per year. The ESPN streaming service is priced at $29.99 per month or $300 annually.

WWE PLEs will continue to be broadcast on Netflix in international markets.

Levesque’s complete appearance on Get Up can be seen below:

WWE premium live events to stream domestically on ESPN in 2026, contract details emerge

Posted on by Josh Nason

Starting in 2026, WWE premium live events will air on ESPN in the United States as part of their new streaming service.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal is reportedly for $1.6 billion over five years ($325 million per year). An official start date was not announced, but it’s all but certain to be with this April’s WrestleMania from Las Vegas.

“Select events” will also be simulcast on ESPN’s linear networks, according to the announcement. Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston noted ESPN will stream both pre and post shows for those PLEs while the initial release left that vague.

Thurston also reported that “ESPN also has rights to create original WWE-related content and plans for SportsCenter to broadcast from the locations of certain WWE PLEs.”

The new ESPN streaming service launches on August 21st at $29.99 per month or $300 per year, meaning WWE fans will need to pay more than they were with Peacock. However, those with existing access to ESPN through a traditional cable/satellite package will get access to the new service at no additional cost through login authentication.

In the ESPN announcement, accessibility to archive content was also not mentioned. Lightshed Partners’ Brandon Ross speculated that Netflix may want to grab those rights with Thurston reporting that the PLEs that air on ESPN’s service will be available there for replay.

He also noted NXT PLEs are not in the deal, leaving another asset for TKO to get TV rights for.

ESPN is still negotiating with UFC as TKO’s other major content hub’s deal with the sports leader ends at the close of 2026. They are continuing to load up their impending service by signing a deal with the NFL that brings the popular RedZone and other content over.

The deal ends WWE’s five-year contract with NBC Universal that began in March 2021 and included both PLEs and archive content for domestic viewers. In the WSJ, they stated the Peacock PLE deal was at $900 million “according to people familiar with the pact.” Their contract for WWE SmackDown on USA and the quarterly Saturday Night’s Main Even specials remains intact.