WWE could have aired a show other than Raw on Netflix before negotiations changed.
WWE reached an agreement with Netflix to move its flagship show, Monday Night Raw, from the USA Network to the streaming service beginning in January 2025.
WWE received a raise for SmackDown’s rights from FOX to $205 million per year on average, and they will receive $287 million per year in their next deal with NBCU when the show moves to USA Network.
The Raw deal is worth more than $5 billion over ten years, with a minimum annual value of $500 million. WWE’s contract to air Raw on USA Network expires at the end of September 2024, and it is unclear where Raw will air between the end of that deal and the start of the Netflix contract.
Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics was providing notes on TKO COO Mark Shapiro’s talk at the Morgan Stanley Conference, during which Shapiro stated that WWE had originally discussed airing NXT with Netflix before moving Raw to the streaming service.
When the Raw talks kicked off, the global rights conversation began. He credited WWE President Nick Khan and TKO CFO Andrew Schleimer with negotiating the agreement.
"Not in my wildest dreams" did Shapiro expect Netflix for the Raw deal. He says the conversation was originally about NXT. Then the Raw conversation became a global rights conversation.
He credits WWE President Nick Khan and TKO CFO Andrew Schleimer for negotiating the deal.
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) March 6, 2024
