On Wednesday, WWE confirmed it has signed a deal with NBC Universal that will see its flagship RAW show run on the USA Network through to the end of 2024 before moving to Netflix in 2025. Until today’s announcement, there was speculation as to whether RAW would have a broadcast home during the “stub period” between September and December, since the broadcast rights deal with NBCU only ran to September.
The announcement of the deal was included in the Q1 earnings release for TKO, WWE’s parent company, and reiterated during the company’s quarterly investors call held later that day.
The call included commentary by three of TKO’s executive offices: Ariel Emanuel, the Chair and CEO; Mark Shapiro, President and COO; and Andrew Schleimer, CFO. All three were bullish about the company’s success, proudly touting the financial results of TKO, which owns both WWE and UFC.
“TKO is off to a solid start in 2024,” Emanuel said, kicking off his comments, attributing the success to record attendance and gate revenues for live events during the quarter (January through April 2024), WWE’s “landmark global deal with Netflix”, and highlighting changes to the company’s business formula, such as the company’s first ever in-ring sponsorship deal with Prime Hydration drink.
In addition to the Prime deal, Emanuel noted that TKO’s sponsorship strategy will include looking for cross-promotional deals with UFC. He noted that opportunities for this kind of deal could be pursued with companies like Wheatley Vodka, Amazon Studios, and Coca-Cola.
“We are confident in our ability to grow our global revenue. Across each of our lines of business,” he concluded, “we believe TKO is poised to continue our growth.”
Schleimer noted that another key building block for future growth is the focus on receiving site fees from cities for running events there, noting that the decision to hold the Elimination Chamber Premium Live Event in Perth, Australia was largely because of the cash and non-cash incentive deal reached between WWE and Tourism Western Australia.
It was noted that WWE’s ongoing relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also led to similar opportunities for UFC, which held its first event there in 2024, and has committed to another in 2025.
Though it was noted that there was some fear that the cash-cow deal that sees WWE hold two events there annually might have been in trouble with the departure of Vince McMahon from WWE, but credited WWE President Nick Khan for taking that ball and seamlessly running with it.
“Those deals were primarily and highly-tied with Vince McMahon,” said Shapiro. ”Fortunately, Nick Khan has developed and sustained, cultivated, nurtured a very strong relationship (leading to a) hand-off from Vince. Potentially, we could explore doing more events (there), but nothing more is planned at this time.”
In terms of WWE’s financial performance, they noted that Q1 was very successful, with revenues of $316.7 Million USD in the quarter, an increase of 6% from the same period in 2023. That increase was the result of an increase in live events revenue (based on higher ticket sales and site fees) and media rights increases, but were offset by decreases in consumer product sales. Those declines were the result of the early termination of an agreement for licensed collectibles and the transition of WWE’s venue merchandise business to Fanatics.
Based on the success of the first quarter, which outperformed expectations, TKO has adjusted its guidance for investors, announcing it expects total 2024 revenues of $2.61 Billon and Adjusted Earnings Before Income Taxes and Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) of $1.185 Billion.
“This quarter has just been gangbusters for us,” summed up Shapiro. “Our business is brisk across the board.”