AEW are hopeful that the new WWE TV rights deals will lead to more money for All Elite Wrestling in the long run.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter now reports that AEW are hopeful WWE’s recent improvements in value on their TV rights deal will drive up the price during their upcoming negotiations with Warner Bros Discovery.
AEW is still in its exclusive negotiating window with WBD. Whether this happens or not, the hope from AEW is that if WWE gets the increase they are expecting, it increases the value of wrestling on television and thus increases its value to WBD and in the free marketplace for its next contract. If WWE gets a 40 percent increase for Raw, which will cause another stock price drop, it would be $658 million not including NXT. Raw & Smackdown combined deliver roughly twice as many viewers in 18-49 as the combination of Dynamite, Rampage and Collision. Based on that, you could say AEW would be worth $329 million per year for its three shows, although I still wouldn’t expect a number close to that because the value of No. 1 in the marketplace is usually much bigger than the comparison of ratings itself with No. 2. But if you throw in streaming rights to 12 PPV shows per year, that $200 million to $240 million figure going around months ago isn’t implausible at all. Even at $170 million per year, which per viewer would be barely half of what WWE seems to be getting, it will make AEW exceedingly profitable and with overseas rights and other revenue and at that point they would be the most successful wrestling promotion from a business standpoint in the history of the industry.
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We will have to wait and see if AEW’s hopes will become a reality and if the company will be able to secure more money on their upcoming TV rights deal.
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