WWE RAW Has Plenty Of Interest As Television Rights Deal Intensifies

WWE announced that USA Network will get SmackDown, starting in 2024. That was a big change for the blue brand, and it will also likely call for RAW to move off its longtime home of the USA Network and find another home. There is a lot of interest, so WWE isn’t worried about the move.

Last month, it was officially announced that Endeavor had finalized the merger between the UFC and WWE, resulting in the creation of a new company, TKO Group Holdings, which subsequently became publicly traded. A lot of things changed about the company, but the plan is to keep WWE and UFC’s media rights deals separate.

The week following the merger’s completion, it was revealed that TKO had secured an agreement to move from FOX back to the USA Network, with SmackDown scheduled for October 2024. This decision came after they inked a five-year deal between WWE and NBCUniversal.

Endeavor and TKO CEO Ari Emanuel spoke about the deal during Bloomberg’s Screentime conference. He highlighted that they had achieved a 40 percent increase in SmackDown’s TV rights, and mentioned that their arrangement with NBCU for airing WWE PLE and its library on Peacock would expire in 2026.

WWE NXT and RAW will stay on the USA Network through September 2024. Both shows’ rights are up, and there seem to be interested parties.

“I would say to you there’s plenty of interest in Raw right now. I know people are like, ‘NBC is out of the mix,’ and that’s why it went down. I think there’s three things that happened. One the reasons the stock is down is they thought Raw was the best package. I saw a 40 percent increase which was in line with expectations… Two, the P.F.L. situation and three, probably Vince (McMahon) in our deal, wanted to be able to put, at any point in time, his stock. He’s 78 years old. He’s been working at this for decades and decades so, I think those three back-to-back issues.”

We will have to see where WWE RAW and NXT lands when everything is said and done. Obviously, a lot of things can change, and television rights deals can get very complicated.

Keep checking back with us here at Ringside News for more on this story, and so many more, in the pro wrestling world. WWE RAW and NXT may find new homes, and that boom in viewership that the company is enjoying couldn’t have come at a better time.

What’s your take on WWE RAW and NXT moving networks? Let us know what you think in the comments section!