Disney announced the acquisition of WWE premium Live Events for its Direct to Consumer platform which starts August 22nd. The cost to consumer is $29.99 per month.
The deal is estimated at $325M per year for 5 years.
WWE PLEs have been airing on Peacock since 2021. one can infer that the deal with NBC Universal is over in 2026.
The new acquisition means that Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and more will be exclusively on ESPN’s DTC consumer service although there is indication that some PLEs will be on linear TV.
Did anyone think 10 years ago we could see Wrestlemania on ESPN?
The acquisition gives us mixed signals on the prospects of the UFC’s media deal for next year. I had thought that they would head somewhere other than ESPN but with its stablemate going to ESPN’s DTC, we could see the UFC return. But, there is the aspect of it splitting its media rights and going with Netflix and a linear option such as CBS. This is something that Sportico proposed in a post earlier this week.
The deall announced Wednesday does not include the WWE content library or its weekly shows. Thus, the price tag for the 5-year deal is huge considering it is purchasing 10-12 events per year.
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