The WWE content library has been available on Peacock in the United States for several years, but that arrangement will soon end. The library is scheduled to leave the NBCUniversal streaming service at the end of 2025, raising questions about where U.S. fans will access historic footage.
The post-Peacock future of the WWE library has not yet been officially announced. Fightful Select reports that WWE employees expect the library to be rolled out gradually on YouTube and the company’s vault channels. However, the company is not expected to upload the entire library to YouTube at once.
The belief is that WWE has a favorable deal with Google due to its massive YouTube presence. WWE has long been satisfied with the buzz the vault channels generate and the financial returns from their YouTube presence. This strategy marks a significant shift from the subscription-based model that has defined the distribution of the company’s archive since the WWE Network launched in 2014.
Fightful also reported that longtime WWE employees noted the content library wasn’t the draw many fans expected and likely wouldn’t command a high media rights fee in the open market. This assessment aligns with the company’s plan to license its current programming to the highest bidders while finding alternative homes for the archive.
Internationally, the landscape is different. The WWE library is available on Netflix in many territories, including the vast majority of WWE’s historic Premium Live Events. However, very few landmark episodes of Raw and SmackDown are currently available on Netflix. WWE’s entire content library was previously available on the standalone WWE Network, but the streaming service was largely discontinued in favor of licensing deals like the one with Peacock.
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