Mega AEW Deal With Warner Bros Discovery “Not Promising”
Market conditions could be looking tough for AEW to get a deal with Warner Bros Discovery that’s worth even what they could have gotten last year.
It was reported in July that All Elite Wrestling had been in talks with their US broadcast partner Warner Bros Discovery over what was described as a “huge money increase” for Tony Khan’s company as part of a new broadcast deal. However, with rumours swirling that Warner Bros Discovery could be taken over along with major sports rights coming up for renewal soon, things might not be that simple.
AEW deal could depend on the NBA
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer was asked what a potential takeover of Warner Bros Discovery by Universal could mean for AEW and explained why things don’t look good for the promotion getting the deal they could get even just a year ago:
“It’s not promising for AEW to get the deal it looked like they would get a year ago because things have changed. Basically, NASCAR is only getting a small increase and NASCAR is a higher priority than WWE, obviously much higher priority than AEW. The basic gist of the story is the NFL is locked up forever, the NBA deal is up at the end of the 2024/25 season and everyone’s gonna want the NBA.
“I think the AEW deal in many ways depends on the NBA. If Warner Bros – WBD – bids enough to keep the NBA with their revenue declining most likely that means it would be tough for AEW to get a giant number. If they lose the NBA at that point AEW becomes so much more valuable because they don’t have the NBA anymore.
“Even if AEW got a big increase per viewer they would still be a bargain compared to WWE so they do have that going for them – that they’re underpriced so far compared to WWE.”
Currently, Tony Khan’s company has three shows on WBD networks TBS and TNT that air weekly in Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision. It was not basketball but rather baseball that shifted Dynamite from its usual Wednesday slot to go head-to-head with NXT on the 10th of October in a hugely talked about night of wrestling action.
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