The red brand is heading to the red streaming service. This past Tuesday, WWE announced that it would be moving its flagship program, WWE Monday Night Raw, to Netflix beginning in January 2025. This is a landmark shift within the professional wrestling industry as a whole, as WWE Monday Night Raw‘s pivot to Netflix represents the first time that a live, weekly wrestling series will be live-streamed via a streaming service. As of this writing, all other live, weekly wrestling shows like WWE SmackDown and AEW Dynamite exist on traditional cable television. Beyond the perk of that $5 billion dollar price tag Netflix forked over for the program, WWE Monday Night Raw will enjoy a significant shift within its production under the Netflix banner.
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Netflix to Script WWE Matches Around Commercial Breaks
“The action continues when we return, don’t go anywhere” might be an announcer’s call of the past.
As reported by CNBC, Netflix is planning to have WWE matches “scripted around commercial breaks” in an effort to “satisfy ad-free customers.” The report adds that in-ring content that airs when commercials would happen will have “continued action from live matches that aren’t important to the outcome,” referencing “a wrestler in a sustained headlock.”
Due to Netflix having varying subscription tiers, each particular tier will have its own slightly unique viewing experience for WWE Monday Night Raw. All subscribers will be watching the same product, but ad-based subscribers will still see commercial breaks. The action they end up missing will not be crucial to the matches’ finishes. On the contrary, ad-free subscribers will see full matches completely uninterrupted, but the moments that occur during those commercial blocks will be slower.
Slightly shifting how matches are produced could by just the first change that Netflix makes to its WWE product. It has been noted that both WWE Raw‘s air date and runtime could change under the Netflix banner, as well as the show’s overall audience rating.
“This is a super game changer,” TKO President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro said regarding WWE Raw moving to Netflix. “When you look back at the chapters of sports media history, new chapters are driven by extraordinary new paradigms. ESPN and Turner bringing NFL to cable in 1987. Rupert Murdoch bringing football to Fox in 1994. When new histories are written, Raw on Netflix will be such a chapter starter.”
WWE Monday Night Raw currently airs every Monday at 8 PM ET.
