NBCUniversal Executive Explains Why AEW Is In Great Shape for an HBO Max Streaming Deal

One of the biggest rumors surrounding AEW in recent months is whether or not the company will manage to land a streaming deal with WarnerMedia, host of Dynamite, Rampage and a yet-to-be-named backstage reality series, to put its product on the HBO Max platform. Mik Pandit, an executive for NBCUniversal, was a guest on Eric Bischoff's Strictly Business podcast recently and explained why AEW's consistent audience for Dynamite, which sits at around a million viewers each week, puts them in great shape for a potential deal. 

"I think that is a huge advantage for them," Pandit said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). "This is not revealing anything internal but NBCU Executives have been very clear with how pleased they are with the WWE's drive of subscribers to the Peacock platform. Part of the advantage for WWE is there are new events each month, yes but then two, arguably three or four times a year, they have these big events. Your WrestleManias, the upcoming supershow in the UK, Saudi events that drive consumers who might not have been subscribed to say I have to watch this.

"They're loyal, they want to see new content. Is a baseline of a million viewers something Tony can sell as an advantage for him? Yes, the question is what is the price he's going to get for that. Now as we see more consolidation in the industry and their partnership primarily with WarnerMedia that's being run by Discovery executives, not Warner executives, from all intents and purposes from what we have seen and I don't know anyone in that organization, but they're going to run a much leaner and meaner business than Warner had planned on running," he continued. "Now does that mean AEW is going to get the kind of live rights media fees that they would've gotten a couple of years ago? I don't know the answer to that but I think the advantage for AEW is that even at an increase to what they're currently getting paid which is around 40-45 million a year, it's still probably cheaper than scripted programming."

He later added, "You're getting to a point to where justifying paying $10 a month just for wrestling content is going to be very difficult for all but the most hardcore of consumers. Somebody who probably watches wrestling one out of every three pay-per-views probably wouldn't. AEWs advantage is they have on average 1 million linear cable viewers week to week. Most of those people probably have access to an HBO Max so I would imagine it's more valuable for HBO Max to have that content on HBO Max so they can grow their subscription base and retain it. Of those one million AEW fans, if let's say half of them subscribe to HBO Max, that's a solid 400,000 fans and subscribers who are going to drop off at a lower rate than your average subscriber."