It’s been a newsworthy week for WWE for many reasons, whether that be the latest lawsuit against Vince McMahon, where he faces horrific allegations, The Rock being added to the WWE Board of Directors or the Netflix deal.
The deal
WWE made a deal with Netflix that will see its flagship show, Monday Night Raw, move from the USA Network to the streaming service beginning in January 2025. The deal is for ten years and more than $5 billion. The deal is valued at at least $500 million per year.
To compare, WWE’s current five-year deal with the USA Network is worth approximately $250-260 million per year. WWE’s deal to air Raw on USA Network runs through the end of September 2024, and exactly where Raw will air between the end of that deal and the beginning of the Netflix deal is still being determined.
Update
Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics reports he was told the deal is backloaded, which means Netflix will be paying more money to WWE later in the term and lower earlier in the ten-year term.
Thurston estimates the Netflix deal represents a 1.2x to 1.3x increase in value across all of the agreements. Analyst Brandon Ross from LightShed came to a similar conclusion, and David Baldini at PWInsider put the deal at a 33% increase (or 1.33x).
This comes after WWE got a raise for SmackDown’s rights to $205 million on average per year currently from FOX as they will get $287 million per year in its next deal from NBCU when the show moves to the USA Network.
