The clock is ticking on All Elite Wrestling and Warner Bros. Discovery to come together on a new media rights deal. AEW officially linked up with the entertainment conglomerate in Fall 2019 on a five-year contract, premiering AEW Dynamite on WBD channel TNT. The deal between the two has significantly evolved over the years, as two new in-ring shows in the form of AEW Rampage and AEW Collision were launched alongside reality series AEW: All Access. This auxiliary in-ring programming also lives exclusively under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella, as AEW shut down YouTube shows AEW Dark and AEW Dark: Elevation as a result.
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That restructuring has only added clauses to the current contract, not time. AEW’s media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery is still set to expire at the end of 2024.
AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Announcement Window
The coming seasons could be kind to AEW.
As reported by Fightful Select, an announcement of a new deal between AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery would come during either the summer or fall if the two sides reach an agreement. It was noted that if that agreement is reached, it is expected to be kept very close to the vest. Warner Bros. Discovery maintains an exclusive negotiating window with AEW throughout the summer.
Over the past year, AEW President Tony Khan has made his satisfaction with AEW’s WBD partnership abundantly clear, regularly praising the media titan while also making it clear that he hopes to migrate AEW’s tape library to the Max streaming service. AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery are still actively discussing that possibility, specifically in the form of AEW pay-per-views becoming exclusive to Max as premium live events.
“We’ll have to see. We’re actively negotiating right now, and at that point we’ll be deep in the conversations,” Khan told ComicBook when asked if AEW ALL IN: London 2024 edition will be on a streaming service. “It’s hard to say this year. When we find a streaming home for AEW, that’s going to be a long-term plan. Given that we’re up at the end of this year, I think one of the reasons I’ve wanted to wait is I think when we get the streaming contract figured out, it should be a long-term solution for the fans.”
It is believed across the industry that Warner Bros. Discovery is going to lose the rights to NBA basketball games to NBC. If that does come to fruition, Fightful noted that Warner Bros. Discovery will aim to reinvest into other properties in an effort to retain its position on cable television.
