The television rights for both WWE Raw and Smackdown Live are serious concerns for the company. We have heard a plethora of rumours regarding this.
There is news on the internet suggesting both the weekly televised shows will move to a new platform. Currently, they have the USA Network as their home.
The previous reports suggested NBC Universal (owner of USA Network) acquired the rights for WWE Raw. The deal has a range of around $300-$400 million. It is three times high than the previous one. So, WWE made a huge profit in this contract signing. Also, they have been able to keep the flagship show in the same place for the past two decades.
But, the USA Network refused to buy the TV rights for Smackdown Live. It might have made WWE gainer, as well. They now have another media giant who has come with a new bid. ESPN reported that WWE and Fox Sports reached an agreement in recent times to air the so-called B-show of the company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDdQR_3FeLg
Smackdown will start airing on FOX Network starting from October 2019. The Tuesday Night Show will move to Friday Nights, most likely. (As per The Wrap’s update) They might have received a billion dollar of money around this sell.
Apart from FOX Sports, there were other tech giants who wanted to buy the rights for Smackdown Live. Online streaming media such as Amazon or Facebook wanted to air the show, as well. They were in talks with the WWE after the Mixed Match Challenge saw huge success. The show hosted prior to Wrestlemania gave WWE around $100000 for each 20-minute episodes.
But, WWE still chose a global network in the USA in the form of Fox Sports. There were talks of a deal between the two parties for a long time. It might have come to a reality, for now. Check out more updates on the deal, courtesy stillrealtous.com,
“WWE declined to comment on the matter after being asked by ESPN. So no specifics were noted concerning the deal, but that will likely come out in time. However, the deal is said to be a massive one leading us to wonder what kind of offer WWE agreed on. Therefore it looks like NBC Universal dropping SmackDown Live didn’t hurt negotiations after all.”
