The negotiation window for Comcast and Fox over WWE media rights has come and gone without the networks reaching a deal. This leaves the WWE open to accepting a new contract with other networks during its upcoming sale to Endeavor, which has yet to be finalized.
One interested party is The Walt Disney Corporation. Although Disney owns ESPN, the company is considering bidding to bring WWE to FX, which joined The Walt Disney Corporation in 2019. ESPN has scheduling conflicts that would prevent WWE matches from airing, so if Disney ends up bidding and winning a media rights deal it would need an alternate network to broadcast it on.
Andrew Marchand of The New York Post suggests ESPN wouldn’t be a great fit for WWE regardless, as the wrestling giant is considered too far into the entertainment side of sports and doesn’t fit with the rest of the networks programming, among other reasons. He says Amazon Prime Video, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Apple could also make a bid for the media rights.
As per the terms of the current contracts, Comcast pays $265 million per year to broadcast Monday Night Raw on its USA channel. Fox pays $205 per year for Friday Night Smackdown.
The current contracts WWE has with Comcast and Fox run through October 2024, so there’s plenty of time for a media rights deal to go through. Comcast and Fox can still renew contracts with WWE during this “open market” window and are the leading contenders for keeping their media rights deal once a new contract has been cemented. Whether they do so or not is still to be decided.
The Walt Disney Corporation has yet to make any official or tenative bids for media rights to broadcast WWE, so check back with Cord Cutters News as more information on this developing story comes out.