Back in December of 2024, Anthem Sports & Entertainment – the parent company of TNA Wrestling – hired Carlos Silva to oversee Anthem Sports Group – which includes TNA Wrestling, Invicta FC, and Fight Network – who stated that his near-team focus is to find the best distribution available and sponsorships.
TNA President Carlos Silva recently spoke with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp about the excitement and buzz still surrounding the TNA Slammiversary PPV and the brand’s growth in recent months. That conversation led to discussions about his plans to expand TNA Wrestling’s reach – a significant part of that involved the hope for a new outlet that would provide more fans with access to TNA wrestling in the United States.
“It’s something that I’ve worked on since the day I got here. I knew it was gonna be part of my job and the team that I’ve assembled to continue to build the distribution of TNA,” he said. “TNA is a great product and when you have a great product, the key is that more people get to see the great product. Right now we’re doing that in a lot of different ways. AXIS TV is a is part of the Anthem in sports and entertainment family. We own it and Andy Schuon runs it on the entertainment side and is my colleague and partner. It’s been great.
“We do very well on AXS TV, but as you know, in the world of cable channels, they’re not growing and they’re not getting more widely distributed,” he continued. “So not as many people get to see TNA as we’d all like. We have done some great deals in other countries. did a great deal with Sportsnet in Canada. Now, more people in Canada are aware of TNA. We did a great deal with Claro down in Mexico and 12 South American countries. Great for TNA in those countries, as well as over in India with a big deal with WBD that we’ve had.”
Carlos Silva explained that they are working closely with the CAA to navigate the constantly changing media landscape. Still, he cited the Slammiversary event as potentially going a long way to help them secure a new television deal.
“Those are gonna continue to grow, but my focus is getting more fans in America to see TNA, and we’re working hard at it. It’s going well, but like everything, you gotta get the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed. There’s a lot of moving parts in the media space right now. As you know, every single day we see a new strategy, a new platform, a new digital company, a new cable channel that’s being sold, whatever it is. So we’re trying to navigate through all those waters, but so far so good,” he said.
“We’re working with CAA as our partner to help us with that. It’s been great. They’re great partners to help us, and I think as we kind of get through this summer, we’re gonna get a deal done. I think Slammiversary will be a big part of helping us to get the deal done because it will be a big show, and all those things help.”
Carlos Silva also highlighted the success of the TNA+ streaming service. He praised Endeavor, who power the platform, as excellent to work with throughout the process. Ultimately, he feels confident that better days are coming for TNA in the United States of America.
“It’s going great. TNA+ has been a great platform. Endeavor actually powers TNA+ as our platform provider there. They’ve been a great partner. I think it plays into it. There’s a lot of moving pieces with all these distribution deals. There’s the iMPACT!show, there’s the Xplosion show, there’s 6,000 hours in a library, there’s TNA+, there’s our pay-per-views, there’s our PLEs. I think all of those pieces, if each piece is strong, you have a better chance of getting a better deal. So we’ve been concentrating on creating strength across all of them. So far, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, and we just have to work through it.”
H/T Sean Ross Sapp, Robert DeFelice, & William Thatch for Fightful. Full article here.
Full interview:
In late December, Bodyslam broke the news that TNA would be airing on Sportsnet 360 in Canada starting in January, and in April of this year, TNA inked a new deal with Claro Sports in Mexico and other Latin America countries.
Recently, an interview surfaced with Carlos Silva and John Wallstreet where some of the same topics were discussed.
The next day, TNA President Carlos Silva was on the Ariel Helwani show talking more in-depth about media rights and also revealed the subscriber count for the TNA + app. Silva reiterated a 60-90 day expectation for a new media rights deal.
This also reportedly comes on the heels of Sports Illustrated’s Jon Alba revealing that TNA is shopping around for new and better distribution.
Many TNA talents and figure heads have been talking about finding bigger distribution for the product, most recently Frankie Kazarian back in March when he said that “getting on a better network is the focus of management.”
Speaking of a better TV deal, TNA star Matt Hardy has repeatedly stated that Anthem/TNA is “actively working on that.”
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