Open up those wallets. Watching professional wrestling has just become more expensive. The world’s largest wrestling promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), has just teamed up with sports media giant ESPN on a new media distribution deal.
A deal was announced on Wednesday morning that ESPN’s upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service will host all WWE Premium Live Events in the United States in 2026. The platform will be the home to at least ten PLEs per year, starting with WrestleMania.
New Tag Team Partners
The deal is for five years with an annual value of approximately $325 million per year. The deal comes as no surprise. ESPN already has an established relationship with WWE’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings, which also owns the mixed martial arts promotion UFC. In 2019, the two signed a five-year, $1.5 billion deal granting ESPN exclusive media rights to UFC events.
ESPN’s new streaming service launches on August 21. The intent is to have the service available in time for the upcoming NFL and college football seasons. ESPN recently purchased the NFL Network and will also air several NFL games and programming. A monthly membership will cost $29.99.
For the last five years, Peacock has been the home for its PLEs at a much more purse-friendly price, ranging from $5.99 to the current $10.99 price tag. Many wrestling fans are upset at the price hike to watch WWE content. However, not all wrestling fans will have to pay $29.99 if they already subscribe to ESPN through another television source. Customers with the following providers will get PLEs for free: Spectrum, DirecTV, FuboTV, Hulu Live, and Verizon Fios. Others will have to pay an additional cost.
Crowd Reaction
Wrestling fans are not your run-of-the-mill sports fans. Some of them do not watch other sports, so they would be less likely to fork out thirty dollars willingly to watch PLEs. Especially considering that in the last year, WWE reached an agreement to air their flagship show, Monday Night Raw, exclusively on Netflix, causing fans to spend even more money.
In the United States, a typical fan will need to subscribe to Netflix for RAW, a cable provider for SmackDown and NXT, and ESPN to watch wrestling programming regularly. Peacock will continue to air older episodes of SmackDown. If you are not already a subscriber to ESPN, it will cost you over $500 a year to watch all of the WWE programs that you know and love, which is less than an NFL fan has to dish out to do the same, nearly $700.
Despite backlash from fans saying that WWE is chasing money and not looking out for the best interests of the WWE Universe, wrestling is more popular than ever. According to data from a Fox News study conducted last summer, it was determined that viewership has increased across all WWE television programming. Raw is up 4%, SmackDown is up 10%, and NXT is up 28% from a year earlier. WWE President Nick Khan believes that loyal viewers will follow WWE when the company moves to ESPN.
The Boss Speaks
“I think we’ve demonstrated with Peacock that our subs will follow. They certainly all followed from the WWE Network, and that expanded that subscriber-ship extensively with Peacock… It will be the same case with ESPN and we are definitely excited for that.” – WWE President, Nick Khan
Whether fans agree with it or not, signing a media deal with ESPN is a smart business decision. UFC’s agreement with the media juggernaut led to more eyes on their product and an extended fan base. At the end of the day, two things remain true… Wrestling fans love wrestling, and WWE is entertainment, but more importantly, it’s a business first. WWE and ESPN will be fine.
