WWE close to pinning deal with Fox: report
WWE shares surged 13 percent to an alltime high on Monday on reports that Vince McMahon’s “SmackDown Live” property was close to signing a $1 billion TV rights deal with Fox.
NBCUniversal, which held the rights since 2010 and most recently aired the Tuesday night show on its USA Network, last week declined its right of first refusal, The Hollywood Reporter said.
A deal with Fox would begin in 2019. One report had Fox planning to move “SmackDown” to Friday nights.
The WWE-Fox talks were still ongoing and a deal was not assured, one source close to the situation cautioned.
Fox did not immediately respond to inquiries about the reported agreement. WWE declined to comment.
While no deal was announced, investors started celebrating, pushing shares of McMahon’s Stamford, Conn., entertainment juggernaut to a 52-week high of $59.45 — before they eased a bit to close at $57.86.
Before “SmackDown” aired on USA, it had a six-year run at NBCU’s SyFy network. Comcast’s NBCUniversal still holds the rights to WWE’s “Monday Night Raw,” also on USA.
“SmackDown” draws an average TV audience of 2.59 million, and its “Raw” stable mate attracts 3 million viewers.
Reports surfaced last week that NBCU declined its first right of refusal to renew “SmackDown” at the price put to it by WWE, preferring instead to focus on “Raw.”
Fox, which recently picked up “Thursday Night Football” for an estimated $550 million a year, has been aggressively adding to its sports and entertainment brands.