Major Broadcast Network Looking To Land WWE Video Library
More WWE content could be on the move in 2026.
On August 6, it was announced that WWE’s Premium Live Events will be moving to ESPN from Peacock in early 2026. The monster deal is worth a staggering $1.6 billion across five years and will only impact fans in the United States.
ESPN’s new streaming service, priced at $29.99/month, offers fans access to other ESPN programming, in addition to WWE PLEs.
With the news still reverberating around the industry, Nick Khan described the deal as a “significant step up.” He went on to describe ESPN as a “great platform” for the company’s content that will take it to more fans than ever before.
“The media rights marketplace, I think to any reasonable person looking at it, has sort of become reflective—relatively speaking, of course—of the U.S. economy, where the upper-tier products continue to go up, the premium content continues to get premium pricing, and the lower-tier content continues to sort of make its way. It’s the middle that got squeezed a bit.”
Fortunately for WWE and our shareholders and our fans, we’re not in the middle. So it’s a significant step up. It’s a great platform for us, and to have WWE—what we consider to be the 1A sports entertainment product in the world—on the most family-friendly apparatus is big for all of us.”
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes later expressed his excitement at the deal, calling it the perfect match. However, many fans crititcised the company online for putting profit above the fans experience.
ESPN Looking To Land WWE Library
Following the bombshell announcement, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro made an appearance on The Ringer’s Press Box podcast to discuss the deal. He explained that the new agreement will help ESPN plug gaps in its existing schedule, while it’s hoped that it will also minimize “subscription churn.”
Interestingly, Pitaro confirmed that the network will have the archival rights for all of the events it airs; furthermore, it will look to secure WWE’s broader library when it becomes available.
“Yeah, we’re always interested in content of that quality. I will tell you that we will have the archival rights for the events that we are airing, but yes, in terms of their library, we certainly would be interested if and when those rights are available.”
WWE’s video library is still held by Peacock, but the deal is scheduled to run out in March 2026.
H/t to WrestlingNews.Co