As was reported yesterday, NBC Universal has signed a new deal that will keep WWE’s Monday Night RAW on the USA Network, however they opted not to renew the rights to retain SmackDown LIVE. This means that SmackDown LIVE officially go up for bid and will be moving from the USA Network to a new home.
The deal to keep RAW on the USA Network is said to have been three times the amount of their previous deal with NBC Universal, which is a key factor in the network’s decision to not re-sign both programs. If the report is accurate then that would put NBC Universal’s new deal with WWE at around $240 Million for the rights to keep Monday Night RAW on the USA Network.
Dave Meltzer discussed the news of yesterday’s deal by NBC Universal to renew RAW and pass on SmackDown LIVE on today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio. Regarding the news of RAW’s huge new deal and SmackDown going up for bid, Meltzer said:
“They’ll get interest in SmackDown somewhere, it’s live programming.”
“Fox is interested in Raw still I can tell you that %100 it may just be USA isn’t interested in bidding for SmackDown, they are interested in bidding for Raw and we’ll see how this plays out. But the news in this is that they’re getting a big increase.”
Today WWE’s stock prices soared, and passed the $50 mark for the first time ever. The news of yesterday’s huge deal between NBC Universal and WWE for RAW for triple the value of the previous one, was more than likely a key contributor to the surge in WWE’s stock price this morning.
Meltzer continued to discuss the developing situation with SmackDown LIVE going to bid and moving to a new network. He went on to address previous rumors that the FOX Network might be a potential candidate to land SmackDown LIVE. However, SmackDown may no longer be in the long term plans for FOX. Meltzer said:
“Fox is not going to put SmackDown on Fox that’s not going to happen I don’t think. They were very much behind the idea putting Raw on big Fox — SmackDown I don’t see it. Okay now we’re talking about do you want to spend that kind of money on a Tuesday night show on FS1? The problem is with FS1 when you’re talking about baseball or basketball playoffs or things like that, there are sporting events on Tuesday nights.”
They went on to also note that preempting the show would not need to be a regular occurring thing, but the fact that it would most likely happen could present an issue.
So, with FOX not having much interest in SmackDown LIVE by itself, and the unlikeliness that the network would decide to run the show on “big” FOX without RAW, even if the Network did want to purchase the rights to the property the show most likely would end up on a secondary FOX Network like FS1 which might not be the best fit for SmackDown considering their mediocre ratings and FS1’s lower viewership.
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(H/T our friends at Ringsidenews.com for the transcriptions.)
