One of the year’s biggest stories—and possibly one of the biggest stories for professional wrestling—will be AEW’s upcoming media rights agreement.
The Warner Bros. Discovery TV upfronts are tomorrow, and AEW will be mentioned, but this does not necessarily imply a new deal is imminent. In fact, PWInsider reports that both sides have not yet agreed on a new deal, so don’t expect anything to be announced tomorrow.
For what it’s worth, the belief is that WBD will lose the NBA to NBC, which should free up money for WBD to spend on AEW. AEW Dynamite is one of the most popular shows on cable, and it is consistently ranked in the top five in the key demographic, so one would expect WBD to want to keep them.
It is unclear whether WBD is willing to give them a significant increase. A significant increase in rights would most likely result in AEW becoming profitable and able to rest easy for the next few years. We won’t get answers to any of these questions this week, and there are still several months until the current agreement expires.
