WWE’s exclusive negotiating windows with both Fox and Comcast for the media rights for Friday Night SmackDown and Monday Night Raw have both expired, as reported by The New York Post on Monday. The outlet noted that it’s still incredibly likely that the two weekly live shows will wind up staying put as new deals with both companies could be signed ahead of their contracts’ expiration in 2024, but then noted that Disney had reportedly shown interest in acquiring the broadcast rights for both shows.
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However, while many experts have assumed any deal between WWE and Disney would result in wrestling moving to the company’s ESPN networks, The Post wrote that FX could be the potential landing spot. The reasoning was that due to ESPN’s many contracts with sports leagues, there wouldn’t be a way to guarantee a WWE show would air on the same day/time/channel each week.
“As for TV, the audience WWE draws could be a boon for FX, which has had to manage around the growing reality that scripted programs largely continue to migrate to streaming and commercial-free TV,” The Post‘s Andrew Marchand added. The network has been a Disney subsidiary since The Walt Disney Company purchased 21st Century Fox in 2019.
WWE CEO Nick Khan has addressed WWE’s media rights negotiations in a number of interviews recently. He has also talked publicly about presenting NXT (which also has a deal with Comcast to air on the USA Network weekly just like Raw) as a legitimate third brand. WWE initially attempted this concept in the late 2010s but pulled back when the NXT 2.0 reboot occurred in 2021.
“Initially, NXT was on WWE Network. And then when the pandemic hit, USA/NBCU needed content, we did not miss a week of production. So we went with Tuesday nights NXT on USA from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern time. NXT ratings are also trending up … so that is going in the right direction,” Khan told The Hollywood Reporter last week.
“We think NXT has the viability to be its own standalone brand instead of just being a developmental system – a third brand, if you will, where you can see cross-over from our superstars on Raw and SmackDown to NXT while our young talent develops there. Once we get all of that situated, then we will look at other nights of the week to develop new content as well,” Khan said.
