WWE & Netflix originally focused on NXT in todays Wrestling news
Mark Shapiro, TKO’s Mark Shapiro, talked a lot about future.
The TKO COO revealed an interesting fact regarding the initial WWE/Netflix discussions.
Shapiro stated that the NXT streaming service was the initial point of discussion in the company’s discussions with the streaming giant.
The two sides finally came to an agreement of $5.2 billion for a five-year deal that will bring Raw to Netflix in the United States starting in January 2025, as well as all WWE programming including PLEs to Netflix internationally.
Shapiro said that with the deal they “cracked” the code with bringing live sport to Netflix. He also stated that the partnership “de-risked the UFC/WWE merge that spawned TKO.”
Shapiro has high hopes for the deal, which was pushed by WWE CEO Nick Khan and TKO’s CFO Andrew Schleimer. This is mainly due to his confidence in Netflix marketing. He mentioned that WWE is highly visible to users when they log in. He said that Netflix and WWE are in a good neighborhood, as is NBCUniversal with WWE and UFC with Disney/ESPN.
He said that the partnership with Netflix would be “very innovative”, but that the possibilities are still in the lab phase. He said he wants to bring new technology to the deal, citing how ESPN did the same when it brought new properties to their network.
“Netflix has a strong incentive to bring the same innovation and disruption in technology to WWE, and we welcome that,” he said.
Other notes:
- Shapiro stated that they consider UFC to be one of the “big 4” when it comes TV, given their superior ratings compared to the NHL. He spoke a lot about their success on ESPN and ESPN+, where he said that they are the anchor tenants.
- Shapiro said that they haven’t yet made a combined pitch for sponsorship deals between WWE and UFC, but it is still early. The team to do this just started in January. He is confident that they will be able grow the WWE sponsorships in the same manner as they did with UFC but perhaps faster given WWE’s “best-in-class” status.
- He reiterated that they will focus on activating the advertising inside the arena, and that McMahon did not do things like sell ads on the mat. He did mention that UFC’s advertisements on the Octagon floor are “arguably too dirty.”
- He said that the recent Anaheim WWE/UFC Weekend was a great trial for their dual-threat approach of holding two events in one venue. He also loved the “unplanned synchronicity” of athletes from each brand appearing on the other. They will try to replicate this, but only in certain situations.
- He said that WrestleMania would see a huge influence from WME, Endeavor’s talent agent. “Big celebs” will be coming.
WWE & Netflix originally focused on NXT in todays Wrestling news, Chatalong Chatbox, Results will be Hidden inside a spoiler Button so you will not bet spoiled about direct results.
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