WWE’s Raw to move from cable to Netflix in $5B+ deal
STAMFORD — WWE is taking one of its flagship shows, from cable to Netflix, in a 10-year deal worth more than $5 billion with the world’s largest streaming service.
Stamford-based WWE announced Tuesday that Raw, which airs Monday nights on USA Network, would move to Netflix in January 2025. At that point, Netflix will become the exclusive home of Raw in countries and regions including the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Latin America. Netflix will also become the home of all WWE shows and specials outside the U.S., including WWE’s other weekly shows, SmackDown and NXT, as well as the company’s premium live events, which include WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble. In addition, WWE documentaries, original series and upcoming projects will be available on Netflix internationally, starting in 2025.
“In its relatively short history, Netflix has engineered a phenomenal track record for storytelling,” WWE President Nick Khan said in a written statement. “We believe Netflix, as one of the world’s leading entertainment brands, is the ideal long-term home for Raw’s live, loyal, and ever-growing fan base.”
While Raw will leave linear TV for the first time since its launch in 1993, it will reach a massive global audience on Netflix. As of Sept. 30, 2023, Netflix’s customer base included more than 77 million paid memberships in the U.S.
“We are excited to have WWE Raw, with its huge and passionate multigenerational fan base, on Netflix,” Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in a statement. “By combining our reach, recommendations, and fandom with WWE, we’ll be able to deliver more joy and value for their audiences and our members. Raw is the best of sports entertainment, blending great characters and storytelling with live action 52 weeks a year, and we’re thrilled to be in this long-term partnership with WWE.”
Raw ranks as the No. 1 show on USA, bringing in 17.5 million “unique viewers” per year and figuring among the top-performing TV shows among viewers in the 18 to 49 age range, a demographic highly valued by advertisers, according to WWE.
WWE officials credit the three-hour show, which has racked up 1,600 episodes, with helping to launch the careers of the likes of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Triple H, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Bianca Belair and Charlotte Flair.
Also Tuesday, it was announced that Johnson had been appointed to the board of directors of TKO Group Holdings, the publicly traded company that was created through the merger last year of WWE and mixed martial arts firm UFC.
The new Raw deal has emerged about four months after the announcement that WWE’s other flagship show, SmackDown, which has aired on Fox’s broadcast network since 2019, would return to USA Network in October. In addition, WWE said that starting in the 2024-25 season, it would produce four primetime specials per year that would air on NBC, marking the first time that WWE programming would air on the network in prime time.
Through the new agreement for a five-year domestic media rights partnership, WWE and NBCUniversal expanded a longstanding relationship. In addition to Raw’s airing on Monday nights, NXT, the showcase for WWE’s up-and-coming talent, airs on Tuesday nights on USA. In addition, NBCU-niversal’s Peacock streaming platform serves as the U.S. home of WWE Network.
The new Raw and SmackDown deals highlight the impact of WWE founder Vince McMahon, who returned to the company a year ago as executive chairman, following a short-lived retirement. When he came back, McMahon indicated that leading the company’s latest media rights negotiations would be a top priority, along with exploring “strategic alternatives.”
WWE officials ended up choosing a “strategic alternative” that comprises the largest deal in the company’s history: the merger with UFC, which has created a publicly traded company, TKO Group Holdings, which company officials have said would be worth more than $21 billion.
While WWE is now part of the same organization as Las Vegas-based UFC, it proceeded last year with moving into its new headquarters at 677-707 Washington Blvd., in downtown Stamford.