WWE Monday Night Raw Is A Winner For Both Companies

The WWE is winning a lot right now. It is the top pro-wrestling company in the world and it isn’t even close. The promotion, now owned by TKO Group Holdings, no longer operates like a pro-wrestling promotion. Sure, on the mat it’s still body slams and bouncing off the ropes,  but if you take a look at the kind of distribution deals it has with its tv partners you will find a media arrangement that looks far more like a major professional sports league like the NBA or NFL versus the sort of deals typically found in that business.

AEW the second biggest promotion in the US has an exclusive contract with WBD. The promotion’s top two shows appear on TNT and TBS, their shows live stream on Max, past and future pay-per-view events will also be available on Max, and Max is the only pay-per-view vendor promoted in reference to upcoming AEW events. If WBD decided to get out of the deal AEW would be up a creek.

The WWE on the other hand has a deal with Comcast to air Friday Night Smackdown on USA Network, Peacock is  the home of its library content in the US and the home of its premium live events. The WWE also has a newly revived program “Saturday Night’s Main Event” airing on NBC (major network TV) on select dates throughout the year. The CW which is a totally separate network pays to air and stream the WWE development brand “NXT” also broadcast TV, and now Netflix is the exclusive home of Monday Night Raw world-wide. On top of that, the WWE has a special arrangement with the Saudi government that pays the promotion 50 million dollars per event held in the kingdom. They make sure to cash in on that at least few times a year. This does not even factor in the immense reach the promotion has on social media through programming like “Speed” on X or its YouTube account, amplifying all of the buzzworthy content that any of its products put out.

Its deal with Netflix looks like it was not only prescient but a stroke of genius. According to multiple trades the debut episode of Raw recorded 5.9 million views on Netflix from Jan 6 – Jan 12. It was the top TV show in the US and UK and number 4 in the world. It is unknown how the show will do without the multiple-star appearances that went along with the Netflix debut, but the results from the first week show its tremendous potential. It seems to be an “If you build it people will come” model.

The Netflix deal is incredibly important because the content is popular around the world. If you don’t believe that take a look at the attendance and gait receipts from its PLE events in Scotland, France and Germany. Now Netflix is the home of the WWE around the world instead of via a different TV networks and apps in every territory. This makes it much easier to find and easier to promote.

Think of the way shows such as The Office and or Friends have done on the streamer and imagine a worldwide entertainment brand getting the same algorithm-based promotion. Nobody has anything else like it. If it averages even 3 million views per week, which would be half of the nearly 6 million the first week got it would double its viewership on USA Network.

So while not every wrestling fan is a WWE fan, it is impossible to argue against its success. And with the new emphasis Netflix has put on ad-supported content and a show built for it, the sky is the limit.

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