WWE announced that Netflix becomes the home of its programming in Japan beginning October 1, ending the company’s arrangement with ABEMA.
The announcement came during the September 14 episode of Raw from Mexico City. A graphic aired during the show reading “Netflix becomes the new home for WWE in Japan,” displaying the Raw, SmackDown and NXT logos alongside the October 1 date. WWE Japan posted the announcement on X, saying further details would be announced soon.
ABEMA has carried Raw, SmackDown, NXT and WWE premium live events in Japan since September 2023 under a three-year agreement. The service confirmed last month that its WWE content will come off the platform after September 30, which leaves no gap between the two deals.
Netflix already carries Raw, SmackDown, NXT and WWE premium live events across most international markets under the agreement TKO Group Holdings disclosed to the SEC in January 2024 as an initial 10-year term worth more than $5 billion. Japan had been one of the remaining territories covered by a separate local rights deal, along with Germany, Austria and Sub-Saharan Africa. That structure was intentional: WWE’s Netflix agreement was built to add countries as existing local deals expired.
WWE President Nick Khan has described the strategy. On The Varsity podcast, Khan said Netflix executive Brandon Riegg encouraged WWE to organize its international rights so the company could eventually reach as many markets as possible through one partner, rather than Netflix entering individual smaller markets on its own.
Gabe Spitzer, Netflix’s Vice President of Global Live Sports and Entertainment, told Andrew Marchand on the Main Event podcast in May that Netflix had “just launched in Italy, in Germany” and was “launching in Japan later this year.”
Spitzer returned to the subject last week on the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch, where he said the WWE partnership “ticked every metric we hoped for on the US side” and described international expansion as the next phase. “The place where we’ve been surprised, in a good way, is that it will continue to grow is outside of the US,” Spitzer said. “In the US, we have Raw only. Outside of the US, in most countries around the world, we’re the home for all of WWE.”
