The field is now wide open.
The New York Post is reporting that the WWE, Fox, Comcast/USA Network haven’t reached new broadcasting deals and now negotiations are open to anyone and everyone interested in hosting Smackdown and Raw.
Word is that Amazon Prime, Disney and Apple have also thrown their hats into the ring. Disney could be looking to air WWE on FX or perhaps even ESPN.
In his report Andrew Marchand also states: “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.”
On the Disney front, Wrestle Votes has chimed in with this interesting note:
Regarding the TV rights negotiations, there is big time interest from WWE in a Disney partnership. Not to say the other parties involved aren’t enticing, but Disney is viewed as a win win if that’s ultimately the decision.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) June 12, 2023
In an update regarding WWE’s media rights negotiations, WWE CEO Nick Khan recently said: “We are always in touch with all of the buyers in the marketplace about what they are looking for. If you look at the NBA situation, my belief is the NBA is going to split the rights which are now split two-ways between Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney. They could split them four to five ways. And we think that is good for everybody. We followed the NBA’s playbook five years ago in wanting to not have one exclusive partner for Raw and SmackDown and to split them two ways. Now we are looking at the marketplace in its totality and thinking there might be more options than even that.”
USA Network has been paying WWE $265 million per year for Raw and Fox has been paying $205 million per year for SmackDown.
