2024 WWE Media Rights Dealings: Smackdown moving to USA in October 2024, Raw to Netflix in January 2025

[hockey20000]

Netflix with a VPN set to the UK nets you everything WWE broadcasts

ugh so there taking wwe network smackdown and nxt off tv in canada also?

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

No idea what the actual eyeball count is. I'd imagine Netflix doesn't care as it's the subscription increase that brings in the money. In the end, though, I'd think the addition of live content will drive both numbers up.

Yeah Netflix don't care for sure. But that doesn't make it necessarily as good for WWE if they're getting less eyeballs, as they can revenue in a lot of other ways.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Still feels wrong for RAW after 31 years (32 by time this deal actually takes effect) to just blink out of world of Cable/TV just like that.

This would be like if Monday Night Football decided it "f*** it, we're moving to Disney+"

You make it sound like this isn't still a very real possibility lol.

Cable is a dinosaur. The only thing that slowed down the mass extinction event was the cable companies and networks starting their own shit and raising the prices so it's not as much of a windfall to cord cut anymore.

I'd kill for the NHL to get on a deal like this. If it weren't for TNT and ESPN games, I wouldn't have a cable subscription at all. Hockey and Football are the only things I watch, and an HD antenna will get you most football.

 

[GKJ]

Does it stay on Monday now

 

[Unholy Diver]

Now we can all look forward to the weekly battles between the Miz and Buffering....

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Once WWE goes ad-free, I bet everything will get sponsored. Up next, the Grayson Waller Effect presented by Slim Jim. Snap into it!!

What does this mean for PPV's?

 

[GKJ]

Once WWE goes ad-free, I bet everything will get sponsored. Up next, the Grayson Waller Effect presented by Slim Jim. Snap into it!!

What does this mean for PPV's?

So in the US, you will need both Netflix and Peacock

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

So in the US, you will need both Netflix and Peacock

Do you know when the deal expires?

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Does it stay on Monday now

You would assume the only way it wouldn't is if WWE wanted to make a road scheduling change.

Two different beasts with cable and streaming. Cable the network they go to has to open the 8-11 slot Monday for that network. Streaming can just broadcast whatever they want whenever they want.

 

[GKJ]

Do you know when the deal expires?

October 2029

 

[The Crypto Guy]

WOW! Amazing news!

f*** cable, streaming is and has been the future for awhile now.

 

[savebyrichter94]

So in the US, you will need both Netflix and Peacock

f***ing Bullshit

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

For the people interested in wall street... TKO is up 20% today.

 

[Emperoreddy]

So in the US, you will need both Netflix and Peacock

Unless you got a good VPN then you can do only Netflix

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

October 2029

You sure about that? I'm reading the Peacock deal was five years, signed in 2021.

 

[GKJ]

You sure about that? I'm reading the Peacock deal was five years, signed in 2021.

No, actually, but with Smackdown going to NBC, I would’ve thought that would be included since it will be streamed there no matter what

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

No, actually, but with Smackdown going to NBC, I would’ve thought that would be included since it will be streamed there no matter what

I think the current RAW/SD/Network deals are all separate. RAW and SD end in October 2024. Network (Which includes PPVs, I believe) was signed in March of 2021 and is five years. I dunno when it officially kicked in, considering the Network was previously owned and operated by WWE I assume it could've kicked in immediately upon signing.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Seth, Becky, and Drew, salivating over these TV deals:

 

[GKJ]

I’m pretty surprised Amazon didn’t pull up quite frankly.

 

[Jussi]

Weird. I haven't had access to NETFLIX in probably 4 years lol.

Other streamers caught up to NETFLIX in movie and TV show availability, and their original content has been ass for awhile now.

Netflix is the only streaming service making profit though, and it took them a decade to get to that position.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

I’m pretty surprised Amazon didn’t pull up quite frankly.

I'll be honest, I think NETFLIX kicks themselves for signing this deal three years in. I don't see them adding $500M/year in revenue from WWE subscribers and advertising that they wouldn't have had otherwise. Amazon probably realized that.

I think WWE realized it too, which is probably why they were cool with making it 10 years. To get somebody to commit to $5B after FOX pretty much politely shit on the company saying it was a bad investment is a major win for them.

 

[Kairi Zaide]

I'll be honest, I think NETFLIX kicks themselves for signing this deal three years in. I don't see them adding $500M/year in revenue from WWE subscribers and advertising that they wouldn't have had otherwise. Amazon probably realized that.

I think WWE realized it too, which is probably why they were cool with making it 10 years. To get somebody to commit to $5B after FOX pretty much politely shit on the company saying it was a bad investment is a major win for them.

They just need their number of yearly subscribers to go up by like 1-1.5% (like 2.5-3.0M subs) or so to recoup the cost. A quick search tells me there are over 3M people watching with Peacock (some of which are likely subscribed to Netflix already). I don't think it's far stretched - although not a certainty by any mean - that they'll be in the positive (or at worst neutral) for that deal in the end with the increase in subscribers and advertising. They'll get a lot of people worldwide subscribing just for WWE, especially since it'll have the PPVs.

 

[Jussi]

In case people missed the news last year, when Netflix got rid of account sharing, their subs increased.

 

[Grackle Party]

netflix sucks i wont be getting it to watch the worst wwe show

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

They just need their number of yearly subscribers to go up by like 1-1.5% (like 2.5-3.0M subs) or so to recoup the cost. A quick search tells me there are over 3M people watching with Peacock (some of which are likely subscribed to Netflix already). I don't think it's far stretched - although not a certainty by any mean - that they'll be in the positive (or at worst neutral) for that deal in the end with the increase in subscribers and advertising. They'll get a lot of people worldwide subscribing just for WWE, especially since it'll have the PPVs.

If you're subscribing to the base account (Standard with ads) it's $7/mo. That'd take just under 6M subscribers brought in by the WWE to make up $500M in a year. Even if you were to suggest that half purchased standard with ads, and half purchased standard, no ads, that's an average price of $11.25 per subscription, which would require 3.7M new subscribers to make up $500M/year.

Less than 2M have watched RAW regularly in the US for years now. For reference (Because I dunno that Peacock can gauge how many subscribe exclusively for WWE content) the WWE Network had 1.5M subscribers in October of 2020.

Then you have to factor in that:

1. Some are going to say "f*** that, I guess I won't be watching RAW anymore."
2. Others are already subscribed to NETFLIX.