Hockey Night on Netflix? What the Netflix-WWE deal says about the future of sports broadcasting
BNN Bloomberg
It is perhaps appropriate that Netflix’s latest deal to become the exclusive broadcast partner of pro wrestling has landed like a flying elbow off the top rope.
In a pact announced Tuesday, WWE owner TKO has sold the global rights to stream its three-hour Monday night program, Raw, to Netflix, for the next decade.
The deal kicks in a year from now, once the agreement with current rights holder NBCUniversal expires. And while the price tag – a reported US$5 billion over 10 years – is eye-opening, experts say it makes a certain amount of financial sense for both sides.
Under the previous deal, NBCUniversal’s owner Comcast was paying TKO roughly $285 million annually for the rights to broadcast the WWE’s flagship wrestling show across its various U.S. media properties.