WWE TV Deals

[Jack-Hammer]

The Hollywood Reporter, of all things, is reporting that WWE Raw will almost certainly remain on the USA Network while SmackDown is still up in the air. According to the report, NBCUniversal is extremely close to finalizing a deal for Raw that's triple the value of the current deal.

As for the blue brand, the report states that NBCU declined to renew a deal with SmackDown and WWE is shopping it around to other networks with speculation being that it'll wind up on the Fox network or Fox Sports One. I've read in past articles that WWE's current deal with NBCU is worth about $235 million a year, which I'm guessing includes Raw and SmackDown. I've also read that NBCU paid $30 million for the right to SmackDown back in 2010, which I'm guessing that they only pay $30 million a year for the blue brand leaving the other $205 million for Raw. IF they were paying $205 million a year for Raw and IF the new deal goes through at triple the value of the new deal, then that comes to about $615 million.

It's entirely possible a lot of information was missing from the brief report as it seems difficult to believe that NBCU would be willing to pay $600+ million for a single show. At the same time, however, there were reports out as late as last month alleging that Fox was willing to offer or had offered WWE around $460 million a year for TV rights. One thing that does seem to be the case is WWE has a lot more leverage this time around than when they signed their current deal.

As for SmackDown, I suppose there's always a real possibility that WWE isn't able to land a TV deal for the blue brand. I don't see that happening at all but, if it does, then WWE is going to have to reorganize its entire TV format as even a 3 hour Raw just isn't remotely enough time to adequately feature a roster of WWE's size, which is well over 100. As I said though, I don't SmackDown failing to get itself a TV deal and there's still quite a bit of time left to do it as WWE's current deal doesn't expire until September 2019.

[Awesome_Miz]

ESPN, Hollywood Reporter, and various outlets have reported that Smackdown Live will be moving to Fox starting on October 2019. It is also being said that deal is worth more than $1 billion dollars for TV rights for 5 years. What remains to be seen is what broadcasting station of Fox will show Smackdown. Will it be the main station, FS1 or another one? The interesting thing of this is that Smackdown will also be moving back to Friday nights. Now that could hurt WWE a bit at first, but this is still a huge deal for WWE. I'm just for one am happy Raw stays on USA, because they have always gone hand to hand.

Also, one big thing I just realized will Smackdown still be live or go back to being taped? Cause if these reports are true then at least the deal will take effect until over one year from now and WWE will have time to adjust scheduling if Fox decides to have live showing over taped shows.

[jmt225]

The interesting thing of this is that Smackdown will also be moving back to Friday nights.

I don't find that interesting as much as I find it to be the dumbest idea in the World.

Smackdown was a colossal failure on Friday nights... why would they spend a billion dollars on something and then move it to where history shows it doesn't succeed?

[Big Nick Dudley]

I don't find that interesting as much as I find it to be the dumbest idea in the World.

Smackdown was a colossal failure on Friday nights... why would they spend a billion dollars on something and then move it to where history shows it doesn't succeed?

Agreed. Friday nights clearly suck for wrestling. Makes very little sense. That's the network's problem. WWE gets a billion dollars.

[Jack-Hammer]

It's true that Friday night doesn't sound like the ideal night for a wrestling program but, then again, this will be the first time a WWE show has aired weekly on one of the big four broadcast networks, so it's hard to tell. Maybe the executives at Fox know more than we do and is why they're willing to fork over a billion dollars over 5 years to air WWE's B show. Getting SmackDown onto a network that's out of the NBCU umbrella could be a positive thing for the blue brand as maybe, just maybe, it'll have the potential to really become its own brand, more on the lines of how things were working out until Jinder Mahal won the WWE Championship last year. Before that, the show was a lot of fun but it's been hit or miss ever since.

If it doesn't work out on Friday nights, they'll try another night. If the schedule has the show airing after Last Man Standing, which is set to debut on Fox this fall, then maybe it'll help out when SmackDown makes its debut next September.

[TheManTheyCalledNorCal]

Friday night is really kind of a tough night potentially in some ways, but in other ways I see the logic. If we are really going with the thought of it being family programming, staying "up til" 11 is much less daunting when saturday morning is up next instead of getting up early for school or work. this target audience will be plentiful for them on a broadcast network, even moreso than a cable network. For your older crowd, a lot of time you arent going out til 1030 or 11 anyhow, so it may not be as big of an issue.

On the other hand, friday nights are a traditionally a tough night for television in general. One has to hope the billion dollar price tag will motivate WWE to put more effort into Smackdown, and overcome the friday night slot.

[mrluck_07]

Friday night is really kind of a tough night potentially in some ways, but in other ways I see the logic. If we are really going with the thought of it being family programming, staying "up til" 11 is much less daunting when saturday morning is up next instead of getting up early for school or work. this target audience will be plentiful for them on a broadcast network, even moreso than a cable network. For your older crowd, a lot of time you arent going out til 1030 or 11 anyhow, so it may not be as big of an issue.

On the other hand, friday nights are a traditionally a tough night for television in general. One has to hope the billion dollar price tag will motivate WWE to put more effort into Smackdown, and overcome the friday night slot.

It being a tough night for TV might favor WWE in the sense they might not have much competition. And good point about Saturday morning.

[Storm Trooper]

It will be very interesting to see how they re-adjust the television schedules. Do they take Smackdown on Tuesdays to air on Friday? I highly doubt Fox would pay $1 Billion for 2 hours of taped (and heavily spoiled) programming. As such if WWE decides to air Smackdown Live on Fridays they need to completely re-vamp their live event schedules to run a TV show Friday night. From bringing the TV production people on the road Monday and Friday is much more difficult than Monday and Tuesday.

Conversely, what happens to 205 Live and Main Event? 205 will have to either be taped Monday Night after RAW (bad idea RAW is too long as is), taped Friday to air Tuesday (bad idea), or move 205 to a different night. The other option is to air it after NXT on Wednesday and film it like they do NXT at Full Sail University.


Finally, what does this do to the PPV Weekends? They have been staying in the same city as the big PPVs, but now with Smackdown going to Friday they can't run the post-PPV show there, as there's too much time to make traveling to the show possible. Sure you can run the Friday before the PPV but lets face it go-home TV shows are hardly a big deal.

And Mania Weekend has Hall of Fame on Friday. Maybe they'll just do Hall of Fame that weekend instead of Smackdown? That'd be great if they can cut it down to 2 hours.