WWE Is Still Talking From A Position Of Strength About Raw And Smackdown Rights

WWE views itself in a good position and has a fresh set of financial figures to back it up as other sports properties,

like the Pac-12 Conference, struggle to close media rights deals in a fragmenting market.

On Tuesday, the business announced record quarterly revenue of $410.3 million, up 25% from the previous year, and

operating income of $87.3 million, up 26%.

The impressive results were the result of continued strength across the entire WWE business, including audience

growth of 26% and 19% for the company’s weekly flagship programs SmackDown and Raw, double-digit percentage

viewership increases for premium live events like WrestleMania and Night of Champions, and a new arena gross

record for the company’s most recent Money In The Bank event in London.

These outcomes are encouraging for WWE as it works to finalize new rights agreements for SmackDown and Raw.

Current agreements with Fox and USA Network expire the next year, and recent exclusive negotiation periods with

those networks have come to an end.

WWE CEO Nick Khan declared, “We’re there [in the market] in full force with a robust product that appears to have

very high ratings and relevancy at the time. “The OTT purchasers, like the more traditional consumers, appear to be

quite interested in not only Raw, not only SmackDown, but also NXT. We believe the environment is excellent for

products that register.

Khan also praised the previously announced merger of WWE and Endeavor-owned UFC, which will result in the

creation of a new publicly traded business called TKO Group Holdings later this year.

The merging of these extremely complementary businesses and the launch of the live sports and entertainment pure-

play on a global scale remain exciting to us, he added.

WWE also revealed that federal law enforcement officers issued a search warrant and served executive chairman

Vince McMahon with a grand jury subpoena last month in connection with McMahon’s past misbehavior.

The probe has not resulted in any charges, and Khan declined to comment.