World Wrestling Entertainment and Ultimate Fighting Championship are set to merge on Sept. 12 and become TKO Group Holdings. Now, some valuable broadcast events may be up for grabs that could interest big brand media companies.
Exhibit A is WWE’s widely viewed WWE Smackdown, which has been airing live on Fox on Friday nights since June 2018, when the broadcasting company paid the WWE $1 billion to bring Smackdown to network TV.
Fight fans likely remember the first Fox Smackdown broadcast in October, 2019, when WWE legend Brock Lesner dethroned titleholder Kofu Kingston in just 7 seconds. Four years later it looks like Smackdown could be pulling up stakes and landing with a new broadcasting company.
Professional wrestling and martial arts journalist Dave Meltzer, speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio this week, told co-host Bryan Alvarez that Disney and Amazon were interested in WWE Smackdown for their own network broadcast or streaming sports channels.
“The belief is that (WWE) Raw and NXT will probably stay with USA although WWE is looking for a huge increase in price for both of those shows, especially Raw, obviously from 465 to 700 [million],” Meltzer said. “As far as SmackDown goes, time will tell. There’s a feeling that FOX is not going to go for the 300 [million], which is what WWE is trying to get out of Smackdown or more, and that Disney and Amazon are probably the two companies most in contention for it. And if it’s Disney, (it could be) ABC or probably FX."
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It’s possible that ABC would “want” Smackdown for another night of the week, but Meltzer says the process will have to play itself out. One thing’s for sure, WWE Smackdown could be a reliable ratings winner aimed at the desirable 21-to-39 male broadcast demographic.
“Perhaps there’s another night that ABC would want them or perhaps they want them to boost FOX, which they will boost greatly because it’s the number one show on a weekly basis when it comes to cable, on a year-round basis, 52 weeks a year,” Meltzer said. “It’s not always number one and obviously football is always going to beat it. But Smackdown will be a steady performer week in and week out.”
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