Startling Value Of AEW’s New TV Rights Deal Confirmed

AEW has signed a new deal with Warner Brothers Discovery at long last but just how much money is Tony Khan’s company getting for its product?

As reported by Variety, All Elite Wrestling has reached a new media rights agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal is said to be for the next three years with the addition of a fourth option year that can be exercised by WBD.

As per the agreement, Dynamite and Collision will remain on TBS and TNT respectively. However, for the first time ever, AEW programming will stream live on Max and will be available on-demand from January 2025. Pay-per-views will stream live on Max beginning later in 2025 at a discounted rate for viewers.

The deal looks likely to spell the end for Rampage but there could be more big news for AEW coming with Swerve Strickland recently letting slip the company is heading to FOX as well.

AEW Deal Worth 9 Figures Per Year

Now Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio has revealed just how much the new WBD deal is worth to AEW and it’s no small chunk of change:

$555 million over three years. Average $185 million a year. It starts lower, the middle year will probably be about that, and then the third year would be up from that. And the fourth year would be way up. I’m presuming it includes the buying of the pay-per-view in that figure.

Recent WWE deals for TV rights have seen SmackDown go to the USA Network for $1.4 billion over 5 years, averaging $287 million per year. NXT’s deal with the CW Network is believed to be worth $20-25 million per year over the course of five years as well.

These all pale in comparison to the $5 billion Netflix is paying WWE over the next ten years for Raw and the eventual rights to all WWE programming globally outside the US.