WWE is the miles ahead of their rival brands when it comes to TV deals. They have a regular spot on the USA Network for Monday Night Raw. The flagship show has been on the same platform for the last two decades. It is a significant achievement for the company and shows consistency in their performance with the most popular event in pro-wrestling.
TV deals for WWE reached new heights, as Fox Sports recently acquired Smackdown Live. The earlier speculated USA Network deal was out of the box when the officials chose a new platform for the blue brand. Starting from October 2019, the Tuesday Night show will move to this new platform. It would throw a massive challenge to the Raw building a healthy competition between the two shows.
WWE programming will benefit from this; Fox would love to present Smackdown as one of the more significant attraction on their channel. Furthermore, the mainstream attention would be a mentionable note on this context. It can outlast all the other rival brands of the WWE when it comes to TV viewership. So they have to adopt new strategies to make their presence felt.
Dave Meltzer discussed the topic in a recent episode where he stated the other promotions are looking for the same kind of TV deals like WWE. They are in search of new homes to broadcast their contents on television. Obviously, they have to find a channel that can provide certain benefits.
Currently, Impact Wrestling has their TV deals intact on POP TV. Another major rival brand of WWE, Ring of Honor broadcasts their episodes on CHARGE! TV. They might be seeking a ‘run-on-the-mill’ broadcasting which is opposite concerning DVR broadcasting. Here viewers can’t skip advertising contents as sponsors remain happy.
Check out the excerpts of Meltzer’s comments, (courtesy SportsKeeda.com),
“Whether that’s Ring Of Honor (ROH), whether that’s Impact (Wrestling), whether that’s New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), whether that’s MLW or whoever else is—the next player is going to be the next person who gets that deal.”
“It’s not the person who’s gonna sell the most tickets on the house shows, or draw the most television ratings, or have the most social media followers, or have the most 5-star matches. It’s gonna be who can get that deal.”
The source also mentioned it’s just a strategy that the brand officials will take for the USA only. Popularity for these promotions is not that much big in the outside countries. So they will be happy to give tough competition to the WWE in the home-turf.