Since the 90s, WWE Raw has been a regular fixture on TV for four separate decades. Then Smackdown has been added to the fixture on broadcast television since the early 2000s. Both the programs changed their platforms over the years to testify to the audience’s viewership. In the age of OTT, WWE could very well be looking into the future of the two shows on the online streaming platform.
Recently, WWE hosted its latest quarterly earnings presentation hosted by the co-CEOs of the company Stephanie McMahon, Nick Khan, Head of the Creative Team Paul “Triple H” Levesque, and Frank Riddick. The presentation saw Stephanie celebrating the improved viewership for the past quarter’s premium live events compared to the previous year.
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It was also noted that there has been improved viewership noted for WWE Raw despite what the recent reports have claimed in terms of declined ratings. Nick Khan also brought up the upcoming television rights renewals for both WWE Raw and SmackDown. Currently, the rights for the broadcast are held by NBCUniversal and FOX, respectively until 2024.
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WWE Raw and Smackdown could be heading into online streaming giants
Khan also revealed that the group of possible bidders for both WWE Raw and Smackdown has grown over the years and this, in turn, also included Netflix as a potential bidder.
During the Q2 earnings call, it was noted by Khan that potential bidders for both WWE RAW and SmackDown rights have gotten more crowded. Below is what Khan has actually told,
“On Netflix, we’ve been saying on these calls for many months that we believe Netflix is looking to enter the live space.
We got confirmation of that this past quarter when Netflix made a bid for the rights for Formula 1. We believe Netflix’s appetite for live (programming) will only increase after the introduction of their ad tier.
As we all know, the strongest CPMs are those sold against live programming.”
Khan stated that future bids for live WWE Raw and Smackdown programming have been made by Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company) and Apple over the past year. He then also speculated that NFL Sunday Ticket could be heading to a streaming service.
It was also noted that each WWE premium live event (WrestleMania, WrestleMania Backlash, and Hell in a Cell) was the most viewed event in its history with year-over-year increases of 60%, 49%, and 45%, respectively. This happened over domestic viewership on Peacock.
