Netflix bodyslams competition to grab WWE Raw
Major acquisition is a game changer for streaming
In a major move signaling a tremendous shift for streaming – and continued dominance over its studio peers for some time to come, Netflix and the WWE announced the company’s flagship Raw program will be moving to the streamer in January 2025 in a ten-year, $5 billion deal.
This means Raw is exiting linear TV by the end of the year. Except for a stop at Viacom’s TNN/Spike TV from 2000 to 2005, USA Network has aired the Monday night wrestling showcase for three decades – where in the late 1990s, engaged in a feud with Turner and its WCW in the highly memorable “Monday Night Ratings Wars”. Netflix gets exclusive rights to Raw in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and the United Kingdom, and exclusive rights to all WWE programming outside of the U.S.
Even though it’s “sports entertainment”, the deal for Netflix marks their first entry into live sports.
“This deal is transformative,” said Mark Shapiro, TKO President and COO whose UFC merged with WWE last spring under the Endvaor Group Holdings name (meaning the McMahon family no longer controls the company, though Vince McMahon assumed the title of executive chairman and one-thirds owner.) “It marries the can’t-miss WWE product with Netflix’s extraordinary global reach and locks in significant and predictable economics for many years. Our partnership fundamentally alters and strengthens the media landscape, dramatically expands the reach of WWE, and brings weekly live appointment viewing to Netflix.”
“We are excited to have WWE Raw, with its huge and passionate multigenerational fan base, on Netflix,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria. “By combining our reach, recommendations, and fandom with WWE, we’ll be able to deliver more joy and value for their audiences and our members. Raw is the best of sports entertainment, blending great characters and storytelling with live action 52 weeks a year and we’re thrilled to be in this long-term partnership with WWE.”
In a related move, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who rose to fame due in part to Raw and other WWE programming, is joining TKO’s board of directors.
The move is a game changer as in the past, Netflix shied away from making sports acquisitions and live programming due to its cost – but changed its tune after seeing the success Apple had with MLB Friday Night Baseball and Amazon had with Thursday Night Football. Now not only does Netflix get into this arena for the first time, it also draws from Raw’s heavily male fan base, as the show often ranks as the top-rated non-NFL program of the week in those demos. Netflix recently introduced ad-tier as a choice for consumers – something Netflix said in the past it wasn’t interested in.
Even though USA is losing Raw, the Comcast-owned cable network will gain Smackdown this fall, returning after five years on Fox. Last November, WWE struck a deal with The CW to carry NXT, which moves to the Nexstar-owned broadcast network also this fall. Smackdown ran on The CW between 2006 and 2008.
The news came on a day when Netflix released its fourth-quarter earnings report, revealing the addition of 13.1 million subscribers to bring its total to 260.8 million worldwide and beating revenue estimates with $8.83 billion. It’s a strong comeback for a streaming service who not long ago was coming off the rails, but managed to maintain its dominance as other studios – notably NBCUniversal with Peacock and Paramount Global with Paramount Plus are still struggling to gain a foothold.
With Netflix now adding Raw to its stable, the global streaming powerhouse could be even become more dominant. And with NBA rights still out in the open market – they may not be done.
Editor’s Note: On January 26, Vince McMahon resigned as executive chairman of TKO due to sex trafficking allegations.