Ahead of the All In London event, a new report has revealed a major update on the AEW and WBD media rights renewal.
All Elite Wrestling and Warner Bros Discovery have been in ongoing negotiations for their new media rights deal ahead of the expiration of their current deal at the end of the year.
Despite the exclusive negotiation window for both sides expired in July, AEW CEO Tony Khan met with WBD’s David Zaslav in Paris during the Olympic Games.
Fightful Select provided an update, noting that WBD sources confirmed there was still some red tape to get through, but that another offer for a long-term television deal was made recently to AEW that they are very confident in.
Both All Elite Wrestling and Warner Bros Discovery considered the recent meeting in Paris to be productive and confirmed the deal came after that. One WBD source called the offer “extensive,” but there was no confirmed on what that meant outside of the terms of the deal being “literally extensive.”
The offer is in AEW’s hands and the company is currently reviewing it. AEW and WBD seem optimistic that a deal would be agreed to, but there is no development on when an announcement could be made.
The report notes that sources close to the situation stated that All Elite Wrestling had been offered “at least double” the amount of their previous media rights deal.
However, it is important to note that there are no publicly available numbers of AEW’s current television deal, and that deal did evolve of the duration of the deal. Also, it is unknown if “at least double” are for the same amount of programming, or if additional elements are also involved.
There were also rumours internally that WBD had discussed a “shift in PPV strategy” as it pertained to AEW, but the company offered no comment on that regard.
WBD reps have indicated that any deal that they negotiate will have the Max subscription service in mind. WBD sources indicated that Warner Bros Discovery had made inquiries to AEW about the possibility of that shift in PPV strategy as of 2023.
Sources in WBD and AEW have stated to expect their partnership to continue “for years to come.”
JJA Sport Studio will provide any further updates on the AEW and WBD media rights renewal when they become available.
Comments powered by CComment