TNA President Carlos Silva Talks Media Rights Deal – When It Will Start & More LIVE Events
With lots of talk about the upcoming TNA Bound For Glory PPV, speculation has been swirling for months about a new television/media rights deal being in the works for TNA. While no one network bas been confirmed, a frontrunner has been reported to be The CW network, where WWE NXT airs.
Last Friday, Santino addressed the current, ongoing TNA-NXT invasion that kicked off on Tuesday night. Marella talked about how the TNA wrestlers were tired of having some of their titles being held by wrestlers outside of the company, and were fed up. Saturday, Santino also talked about TNA’s impending media rights deal and what it could mean for TNA and their place in the whole landscape of the business.
Back in mid-August, TNA President Carlos Silva shared with Jon Alba of Sports Illustrated that he predicts the company will have a media rights deal done – or at least something to announce – by the time their October Bound For Glory PPV rolls around.
Earlier today, Carlos spoke with TV Insider’s Scott Fishman and shared that TNA has narrowed their media rights down to one partner and that they’re working through the details of a deal.
Earlier today, Carlos was speaking on the Battleground Podcast, where he addressed the media rights deal and where it stands, as well as whether TNA might adopt a home base for regular events and what the real plan looks like for next year.
“What I can tell you is that we’re closer. What I can tell you is that we’re no longer just talking. What I can tell you is that we’re now in the middle of the deal. The good news is that the process has started. We’re working through the details. And I feel really good about it. I’m very excited about the partner. I think they’re excited about us — that’s why it feels good.”
Silva mentions that the finer points still need to be ironed out, but is optimistic it won’t be long before the deal is officially done.
“We’ve just got to get through the paperwork, understand sort of final deal terms, and certain things where there’s going to be a little push and pull from both sides. But as recently as yesterday when we were exchanging things back and forth, we’re in that process. A new media rights deal would provide us the opportunity to go live 52 weeks a year, and in today’s world live matters.”
While talk about the average number of viewers, Silva shares that it currently brings in about 100,000 viewers and shares the goal for a better network.
“A weekly number between 250,000–500,000, in terms of Nielsen-esque P2+ households, is perfectly realistic on a network in 40 or 50 million homes. So, you know, being October 1st, the timing is great. We can get some things done, dot the I’s, cross the T’s, and then really put our efforts around marketing and packaging so that we launch ourselves into 2026.”
“We are [regularly] being featured on every major WWE and NXT platform — PLEs as well as weekly programming on The CW and their other [broadcast] outlets like Peacock.”
Silva shifts into what that looks like possibly going live more frequently and what it would entail.
“Yeah, I’d say I’m not… I don’t know yet what’s on the table. What I will tell you is that we’re going to continue to do more live in 2026. And so the marketing and the team that Andrea leads from a venue perspective is looking at how we can be better operationally and more efficient operationally.”
“I love live. We’re all live sports guys. We want to be live every week. And I know the talent wants to be live — they tell us all the time how much they love the feeling they get from the audience and just that pressure of being live and sort of hitting your marks. I still think there’ll be some combination of live pay-per-views — obviously — live PLEs, obviously more live for Impact, but there’ll still be some tapings. I don’t think we’ll be going live 52 weeks a year in 2026 — yet.”
Silva talks about what it will take for them to go live, operationally.
“We got to figure out some logistics and operational pieces. I mentioned that because I think NXT has done a great job with the Performance Center. It gives them the ability to be live every week without having to get on the road every minute. So I think that’s certainly a model that we’re looking at. I mean, we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here — we’re trying to be smart about what’s working for others and do some replication for us to keep us operationally healthy in 2026 and beyond.”
H/T Ringside News for transcription.
Full interview:
This past Saturday, Blake “Axe” Avignon of the MMA Draw talked TNA media rights – where they stand, and the potential “blunder” that’s already been made during negotiations. He talked about CW and Peacock being the frontrunners, as well as how Carlos Silva revealing the monetary value of the fees could be detrimental to overall negotiations.
The talks all started prior to Slammiversary where TNA President Carlos Silva was very vocal about getting TNA a better television/broadcast/streaming deal in an interview surfaced with Carlos Silva and John Wallstreet where some of the same topic was discussed, however, no specific network was named. Silva also mentioned looking for about $10 million for a media rights deal.
As far as a broadcast partner goes, about eight weeks ago Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio shared that A&E network was the alleged “frontrunner” to land TNA on their platform, however, another network has now emerged as being rumored for negotiations with TNA, and In the August 4th edition of Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave spilled the beans on a possible alternative network being interested – The CW – which Fightful Select later confirmed.
At the beginning of August – with the news that WWE would be moving PLEs off of the Peacock app in 2026 – a report emerged that Peacock is reportedly the “frontrunner” for TNA to get a streaming deal with.TNA event ticketsWrestling collectiblesTNA merchandiseWWE merchandise
Shortly after the above-referenced John Wallstreet interview, 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.
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