WWE’s Internal Reaction to FOX CEO’s Reason for Dumping SmackDown

WWE SmackDown is going to the USA Network for their next deal, and that transition will happen in 2024. Many fans wondered why FOX didn’t fight harder to keep the blue brand on their network, and Lachlan Murdoch made that very clear this week.

In the Q1 2024 FOX Earnings Conference Call, Lachlan Murdoch, FOX’s CEO and son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, discussed the reasons behind SmackDown’s exit from the network.

Despite SmackDown not meeting FOX’s advertising expectations, its ad space maintained its high value. Recent reports revealed a rise in advertising costs during SmackDown broadcasts, in contrast to the substantial decline in ad space value for other shows.

“We were not hitting the advertising numbers due to the audience of the WWE to make…to return for our return on investment to be above the levels that we would accept. But also, we didn’t attribute enough significant retransmission revenue to the WWE either.”

Advertising

Advertising

This remark caused a lot of attention, especially after it was revealed how much advertisers were paying for time during the blue brand’s show. Ad Age noted that WWE SmackDown’s advertising revenue drew around $51,077. That number is up 8% from the previous year. Brandon Thurston posted on X to break down the numbers a bit for fans.

Ringside News reached out to inquire about internal reaction to what the FOX CEO said. One tenured member of the team remarked to us to say, “No one is surprised by the comment. And the stock is up this week, so no damage was done.”

FOX is no longer in the WWE business as SmackDown wraps up their time on the network. FOX also nixed their WWE podcast, which was one of the first indications that they were distancing themselves from the company.

The USA Network will likely give SmackDown a ton of hype as they prepare for that big move in 2024. Only time will tell where RAW and NXT land, because their deals have not been announced yet.

What’s your take on WWE taking SmackDown to the USA Network? Let us know what you think about this in the comments section!