Exclusive TV rights negotiations for AEW & WBD continue into the summer in todays Wrestling news
The exclusive domestic television rights negotiating window is between AEW & Warner Bros. Discovery will continue into the summer, as the process towards a possible new deal moves forward.
Fightful broke the news first, without mentioning a date. They added that any deal would likely include a streaming component with WBD’s service MAX. A source confirmed independently that the window will end during the summer but could not give a specific date or month.
Although AEW’s Tony Khan has not confirmed the news in public, it is assumed that the current rights deal will expire at the end 2024. He has spoken before about his confidence in a new contract, regardless of where it ends up. However, he hopes to remain loyal to WBD.
Khan refused to answer the question about the timeframe of the window during a media call in April, but said that it would be soon.
WBD is in a unique position with their NBA TV negotiation as industry experts expect that they will lose their portion of rights to NBC due to their massive bid for a package that’s considered a second package. John Ourand of Puck reported that there is a question as to whether WBD could match NBC’s offer, or even Amazon bid for another part, given NBC does have a broadcast component, while WBD doesn’t.
The need to fill time by live programming, if the NBA moves elsewhere, would seem to bode very well for AEW negotiations despite the ratings being down year-overyear for both Dynamite & Rampage. Collision will celebrate its first anniversary in June. WBD still has a portion of NHL games and MLB games.
Since their launch in 2019, AEW programming is available on the WBD domestic networks. WBD-owned Bleacher Report is their sole domestic streaming provider. It wasn’t until April this year that other outlets such as Triller, PPV.com, and YouTube were able to sell PPVs. This was attributed to the multiple technical issues which occurred during March Revolution.
Exclusive TV rights negotiations for AEW & WBD continue into the summer 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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