NJPW has secured its new television deal in the United States by inking a deal with The Roku Channel. The promotion announced the news on Thursday.
The one-hour weekly show will air every Thursday at 5 p.m. EST on The Roku Channel in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Replays will be available on-demand thereafter.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there were other stations interested in picking up the series, but it would not have been as beneficial to the company from a long-term basis. Those networks that NJPW had talks with include the likes of ESPN and Vice among others.
However, NJPW had issues with proving their viewership data when they had a TV deal with AXS TV as at the time, AXS didn’t provide viewership numbers. It wasn’t until recently that viewership data for Impact Wrestling on AXS TV was disclosed.
Another network that had an interest was CBS Sports Network, which airs Bellator MMA, but the problem there was that there would have been no money offered, just an advertising split. Also, “CBS Sports Network no longer subscribes to Nielsen, so whatever they drew wouldn’t have any stamp of approval.”
The difference between NJPW’s deal with Roku and MLW’s deal with the streaming platform is that MLW is listed among several hundred streaming channels Roku carries while NJPW will be a featured show on The Roku Channel itself.
