Warner Bros Discovery are looking to extend their TV rights deal with All Elite Wrestling.
TV rights deals are one of the most important part of a pro wrestling promotion. Getting your product out there, preferably on a large network, can be pivotal in the growth of a promotion. AEW has been airing on TBS and TNT for much of its run, with Warner Bros Discovery being the parent company.
Fightful Select now reports that Warner Bros Discovery and AEW are in deep negotiations regarding an extension on their previous TV rights deal.
Fightful can confirm via Warner Bros Discovery sources that AEW has long been involved in television rights extension talks. Those that we’ve spoken to said that the conversations have been ongoing for months and they personally believe an announcement could be made this Summer or Fall of a deal reached. WBD sources tell us they’ve been very happy with AEW, especially the flexibility they’ve provided with adding and subtracting shows, providing different kinds of content, and working around preemptions and network changes. One of the provisions regarding AEW content and WBD was that AEW content would be exclusive to the WBD brands, which signaled the end of AEW Dark and Elevation on AEW channels. However, we’ve long heard that beyond the PPV integration, WBD hasn’t had much of an interest in ROH branding themselves, and it actually dates back to when Sinclair owned ROH. We haven’t heard if that has changed of late. WBD does have plenty of say and influence over AEW programming, as we’ve seen in the past with crossovers, and talent that are or aren’t featured. However, we’ve been told that AEW has also been really flexible with overruns, as well as other requests WBD has made. Regarding the broadcast of AEW All In, we’re told that has been actively discussed as a part of these talks. The WBD source did confirm what we’ve heard in the past, that the deal would be a “huge money increase for AEW, by the way things are looking now.”
Fightful Select
We will have to wait and see when the two companies can come to an agreement on an extension and what monetary incentive will be added to the deal.
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