In an article on The Hollywood Reporter today, they talk about the WWE new TV deals coming up and what CEO Nick Khan had to say about them. WWE is planning on merging with Endeavor later this year under the new moniker TKO Group Holdings. You can check out our coverage by clicking here and clicking here.
According the THR article, WWE is using a new data point that shows the number of Americans who identify as WWE fans aged 8 and older has continued to grow. In 2022, they hit just about 90 million people (89.9 million to be exact). WWE claims that “More people identify themselves as WWE fans now than at any time in the history of the research, which dates back to 1994.” Now, I am not sure that I 100% agree with that because during the attitude era and Monday night wars, they were getting a hell of a lot more eyeballs on the product on Monday nights. This years Royal Rumble set a record gate with more than $7.7 million which is 50 percent more than the previous record gate for that event. WrestleMania this year had a gate of $21.6 million over the two nights and exceeds the prior record by 27 percent. These are terrific numbers for WWE to use as they get into the nitty gritty on TV deals.
WWE CEO Nick Khan has said that the exclusive bargaining window with Fox has passed and they are still in that window with NBCU and that conversations with them have gone well. Khan stated “We are always in touch with all of the buyers in the marketplace about what they are looking for.” Khan continues, “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.” With that said, the topic of NXT came up to Khan who stated that NXT was on the WWE Network, which has gone the way of the dodo bird in America in favor of Peacock, and Khan said that when the pandemic hit since they were still filming that USA/NBCU needed content so they went with Tuesdays on NXT. He didn’t mention the short lived Wednesday Night Wars.
The possibility of NXT moving to another night or network is very real or possibly another show as Khan stated “We think NXT has the viability to be its own standalone brand instead of just being a developmental system – a third brand, if you will, where you can see cross-over from our superstars on Raw and SmackDown to NXT while our young talent develops there. Once we get all of that situated, then we will look at other nights of the week to develop new content as well.” Speaking about the Peacock deal as well, Khan noted that “We are talking about the 22 million paid Peacock subscribers, millions of them – and I can’t say exactly how many million; I know it but we have given NBCU our word that we wouldn’t broadcast that information – are because of WWE. We are basically a churn-proof popper property since we go at least once a month with our premium live events, formerly known as pay-per-view. … So we think we have over-delivered with Peacock, we think we have over-delivered with our other partners, and now it’s time to monetize it properly.”
What do you think is next for WWE as it negotiates new TV deals? Is it possible that WWE leaves Peacock? Do you think NXT should be fully viewed as a brand and not developmental as the higher ups besides HHH believe? Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on our Twitter account. As always stay tuned to Culture Splat for more content coming your way! Check out our new Podcast Talking Splat on YouTube by clicking here, our first guest is Ango from Ango TV on YouTube or the Audio Options by clicking here.
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