Report: WWE In Talks With ESPN About Selling Their Pay-Per-View Rights

During WWE's Q4 2019 earnings call, Vince McMahon revealed the company was in talks with other streaming providers about selling their pay-per-view rights. McMahon has been looking into this as a possible avenue to maximise revenue, as opposed to continuing with their current model of making pay-per-views available to WWE Network subscribers for $9.99.

Now, Dave Meltzer has reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the company has opened talks with ESPN about broadcasting pay-per-views on ESPN+.

Meltzer penned: "While there has been no deal that we’ve been able to confirm, in a story that is logical, there have been talks between ESPN and WWE. These talks would be regarding WWE content on ESPN+. It is likely the deal WWE is trying to broker, which is a similar deal to UFC where they would sell the rights to their PPVs to a new streaming service that would pay more than WWE could make on its own from selling the content direct to consumers through the WWE Network."

This is a deal that will surprise many, particularly with WWE's close relationship with NBC, who own the USA Network. They were set to launch their own streaming service, Peacock, on April 15 and were keen to have WWE as its key initial programming to draw in subscribers.