Early Tuesday morning it was announced that WWE had agreed to move “Monday Night Raw” to Netflix in January 2025 for $5 Billion over 10 years. The moves indicates a monumental shift for not only WWE, but for online streaming platform Netflix as it starts to carry live sports.
TKO Group Holdings Inc. filed a regulatory filing on Tuesday stating it had agreed to a 10 year deal worth $5 Billion. There is an opt-out available to Netflix after the initial 5 years.
Monday Night Raw will begin streaming on Netflix starting in January 2025. It currently airs on the USA Network. The deal will affect the US, Canada, the UK, Latin America and other territories. It will affect other countries and regions over time as the current licensing deals end. Notably, Nick Khan indicated that India and the Middle East North Africa region are not part of the deal. India represents WWE’s #2 media rights market.
The announcement concludes three big media deals in a short span of time. In September, WWE announced that “Friday Night Smackdown” would be moving from Fox to the USA Network in 2024 in a 5-year domestic media rights partnership with NBCUniversal. WWE’s NXT secured a deal in November for its programming to move to the CW Network from the USA Network.
The announcement came on the same day of the announcement that Dwayne Johnson would be appointed to the Board of Directors of TKO Group Holdings, Inc. and would be given ownership of the trademark he made famous, “The Rock.”
Payout Perspective:
Wrestlenomics speculates that the deal represents a 30% raise for their media rights. It is a huge shift for the company as it has spent its existence, 31 years, on linear television with most being on the USA Network. The move reflects Netflix strategic move into live sporting events. It had aired smaller events for golf but the WWE move reflects that it will be doing more. The move is an evolution for Netflix as it started with obtaining content to creating its own and now securing the rights for live sports. This is the evolution for a company that relies solely on subscribers. Wall Street seems to like the move with TKO stock up almost 16% on Tuesday. MPO will continue to follow.
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