All Elite Wrestling and Warner Bros. Discovery’s exclusive negotiating window is on the clock. Earlier this week, it was reported that WBD has until July to land a deal with AEW without having to bid against other potential suitors. AEW’s broadcast partnership with WBD began in Fall 2019 with the launch of AEW Dynamite and has expanded in content volume since, as both AEW Rampage and AEW Collision have been added to WBD networks TBS and TNT’s weekly slates. While specifics surrounding AEW and WBD’s negotiations have been kept close to the vest, it was recently reported that AEW President Tony Khan is “disappointed” by the current offer on the table.
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Warner Bros. Discovery Executives Attend AEW Dynamite
Warner Bros. Discovery is getting an up-close look at the AEW product tonight.
As reported by PWInsider, a “contingent” of Warner Bros. Discovery executives and staff members are attending tonight’s AEW Dynamite from Los Angeles’s KIA Forum. One notable name amongst the executive ensemble is Associate General Manager and Senior Vice President, Programming & Operations, TNT, TBS, and truTV Sam Linsky. Linsky is said to be a “big champion” for AEW throughout the company’s five years under the WBD umbrella.
AEW’s media rights deal with WBD expires at the end of the year. With WBD set to lose NBA games after this season, there is belief that the media conglomerate will look to fill that basketball void by putting an added emphasis on its other live sporting asset, that being AEW.
One way that could come to be is by bringing AEW content to WBD’s streaming service, Max. Fans have long pushed for Max to not only host AEW’s content library, but also livestream its monthly pay-per-views.
“Something I would be really excited about would be bringing AEW to Max,” AEW President Tony Khan said earlier this year. “We’ve talked about it, it just needs to make sense for everybody. I think when we find a streaming home for AEW, that’s going to be a long-term plan, and 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.”
Stay tuned to ComicBook for updates on AEW and WBD’s negotiations.
