Could ESPN and WWE Wind Up Signing a Media Rights Deal?

ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus appeared on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast this week and was asked about the possibility of ESPN inking a media rights deal with WWE in the near future. ESPN's parent company Disney was seen as a potential bidder to buy WWE earlier this year, but Endeavor wound up announcing it would be merging WWE with UFC into a new company (TKO Group) back in April. WWE is also currently in negotiations on its next TV contracts as the ongoing deals with FOX (airing SmackDown on Friday nights) and NBCUniversal (airing Raw on Mondays and NXT on Tuesdays on the USA Network) all expire next year. Magnus indicated that ESPN's outlook toward WWE has changed in recent years.

A big hurdle in bringing WWE's weekly programming to ESPN would be its ongoing TV contracts with various sports leagues, making it incredibly difficult to guarantee a consistent primetime time slot on the same night each week. Do you think WWE and ESPN will work out a deal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. 

ESPN's Burke Magnus Talks Possible WWE Deal

"I think it continues to be — I guess from a glass-half-full perspective, I'd say I believe our companies — and this changed a couple of years ago so this is not breaking news but I believe our point of view towards WWE as a potential distribution outlet for their events, I think we passed that a long time ago and I think we're now in the bucket of, hey, if their rights are available and there's a deal for us that works and a deal for them that works with us, I think it's certainly a possibility. There's no hesitation anymore from a brand perspective or from a live event versus scripted," Magnus said (h/t POST Wrestling).

"Their fans and our viewers, there's tremendous overlap so, to me, it's just about the business of it and is there something that works," he continued. "I may have said this to you last time we talked but, to their credit, they run a 52-week-a-year business, right?... And I'm thinking, well, let me start from the linear perspective. 52 weeks a year is impossible for us to do on almost any configuration based on the other rights that we have. So that actually cuts against us from a linear perspective but on the digital side, if we were to be in business with them on a streaming or direct-to-consumer or distribution or a pay-per-view distribution or other such thing, I think that's more easily achievable and they have a great product... Well I'm not (talking to WWE). So, I'll just leave it at that."

WWE's Premium Live Event Schedule for The Rest of 2023

WWE has four pay-per-views left for the remainder of 2023. That list includes Payback at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh (Sept. 2), Fastlane at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (Oct. 7), a yet-to-be-named Saudi Arabia show on Nov. 4 and the annual Survivor Series show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois on Nov. 25.