Nick Khan tried his best.
WWE Raw, NXT, and SmackDown rights to programming will expire in the year following. However, WWE has been able to obtain deals for two of three shows.
The bargains
Raw as well as NXT have agreements with NXT and Raw have agreements with USA Network, while SmackDown is telecast on FOX until the fall of 2024. WWE is leaving FOX after signing a five-year contract that will bring SmackDown on the USA Network. NXT will move to The CW Network.
This change to all the shows will go into effect in the month of October 2024. SmackDown’s contract is to keep its blue name in the SmackDown network through 2029. Raw is set to leave USA in 2029, due to the network having to pay that much for the rights of SmackDown. In the meantime, if you consider the long-standing relationships between the two companies, it does not mean they are out of the woods in the event that they get an agreement they’d would like.
The pitch
Triple H and WWE President Nick Khan had meetings in Los Angeles, California, this week to discuss Raw’s media rights. This is the reason Triple H missed Raw on Monday night.
In the most recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer said that WWE expects to earn $400 million per year. However, the analysts think it’ll be more like $387 million per year.
Meltzer wrote that “For most of the negotiation period, the idea was FX as the leader, with Netflix, USA, WBD and Amazon Prime all being talked about.”
For Warner Bros. Discovery which is currently airing AEW programming The acquisition of Raw’s rights could be a major game changer given that AEW is also required to sign an agreement for a new TV contract in the coming year.
Meltzer wrote “The WBD version told to many this past week is that Nick Khan last went to WBD in October with a pitch and was turned down.”
WBD and WBD have stated privately that there’s nothing wrong with the notion about TBS or TNT being the preferred destination to watch Raw to a lot of people in recent times as people in WWE have always viewed WBD as a possibility. The reason for this stems from the idea that WBD holds an ownership share in AEW.
