Report: Warner Bros. Discovery Holds Ownership Stake In AEW
Stake in AEW reportedly held by Warner Bros. Discovery
All Elite Wrestling and Warner Bros. Discovery revealed details of their long-rumoured new broadcast deal on October 2, with the wrestling promotion set to stay on WBD-owned channels and services for three more years guaranteed.
During contract negotiations between the two sides, rumours suggested that WBD owned some sort of stake in AEW, and a report about the deal in Sports Business Journal suggested that ‘WBD also keeps its equity stake in AEW, but the size of it was not disclosed’.
A follow-up report from Fightful Select states that thus far neither AEW nor WBD have publicly confirmed such a situation or stake exists, with PR execs at both companies reportedly admitting they’d never heard of WBD having this kind of equity in AEW.
Regardless, the deal looks to be beneficial to both companies, with WBD having weekly content for TNT, TBS, and its Max streaming service for a decent cost - pro-wrestling is traditionally cheaper to produce episode-by-episode than other forms of television programming - whilst AEW gets a deal that will reportedly make them ‘very profitable’ from 2025.