Everything You Need To Know About WWE's Deal With Netflix

The landscape of WWE was dramatically altered on Tuesday, January 23 following the announcement that WWE Raw will be moving to Netflix in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, and other territories from January 2025 in a 10-year deal. While only Raw will air on Netflix in the United States, the deal has much greater international implications as Netflix will also broadcast SmackDown, NXT, and WWE premium live events internationally, including in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the start of 2025. 

The announcement was ultimately historic for WWE and will see the company's flagship show leave linear TV in the United States for the first time since it went on the air in January 1993. The company's other weekly programming will remain on TV as SmackDown will move to USA Network and NXT will head to CW in October 2024. WWE premium live events will continue to be broadcast on the Peacock streaming service in the United States. 

TKO President & COO Mark Shapiro said following the announcement: "This deal is transformative. It marries the can't-miss WWE product with Netflix's extraordinary global reach and locks in significant and predictable economics for many years. Our partnership fundamentally alters and strengthens the media landscape, dramatically expands the reach of WWE, and brings weekly live appointment viewing to Netflix."

According to Sports Business Journal, the 10-year WWE-Netflix deal is worth $5 billion. It is unknown exactly how much the Raw portion of the deal is worth but TKO CEO Ari Emanuel has claimed it is in line with the expectations on Wall Street, which was around $387 million per year. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics has estimated the Netflix deal could represent around a 30% raise in the United States media rights for Raw. The deal from October 2019 to October 2024 with USA Network was worth $265 million per year. 

Netflix was reportedly the company that WWE wanted to make a deal with. The team of TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, TKO President Mark Shapiro, TKO CFO Andrew Schleimer, and WWE President Nick Khan led the talks with Netflix while Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria was on the other side of the table. WWE also held talks with Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon, and Disney for FX but ultimately made the deal with Netflix, with talks kicking into high gear in December 2023. 

How long WWE Raw and other programming internationally will remain on Netflix remains to be seen. The streaming service can opt out of the deal after five years in 2030 or extend the deal by an additional 10 years to 2045. 

What is known is that Raw will remain a three-hour show on Netflix. Many Netflix subscribers have subscriptions to the ad-free tiers and these users will simply continue watching the show while adverts are played for those on the ad tier. The in-ring action just won't be the finish except in very rare circumstances where a match has to be waved off due to injury. The plan at the moment is also for Raw to remain Monday Night Raw but Nick Khan admitted that could change by the time January 2025 rolls around. 

Nick Khan said on The Pat McAfee Show:

"At this moment in time, it remains Monday Night Raw but keep in mind, we've got 10 and a half months until this deal's up and running so we're looking at what you're looking at and what everyone else is looking at. You have a proliferation of gambling with Monday Night Football. You have an enhanced Disney package, better games, all credit to Jimmy Pitaro (ESPN President), the Bobfather as Pat you and I call him, you coined that term, Bob Iger (Disney CEO) and all the other good folks at Disney.

"You've got the Manningcast. This year, it was on ABC and ESPN Monday Night Football. You got last season the playoff game that they got I believe was Tom Brady at the Cowboys, the season before, whatever that was. You also have the college national championship, football and hoops on Mondays. So, you've got a lot of Mondays where there is stiff competition.  

"With that said, even against Alabama/Michigan and the Washington/Texas game a few weeks ago, Monday Night Raw did a 0.6 in the 18 to 49 demo, which is a massive rating against big competition. If we stay on Mondays, it'll work, if we move to a different day, we think it'll work too."

Beyond Monday Night Raw, though, the WWE Network that remains active outside of the US will be shuttered at the end of 2024, according to reports. The WWE library will be dissolved into Netflix at the start of 2025. 

Netflix and WWE have worked together in recent years on a docuseries focused on Vince McMahon. That documentary is expected to be released in 2024 but the two companies may work together on movies and other series as an extension of the deal for Raw and international rights to SmackDown, NXT, and PLEs.

H/T F4WOnline