Nick Khan Talks WWE Sale, TV Deals, Peacock, More – WWE Chief Executive Officer Nick Khan is giving major credit to Chief Content Officer Triple H and “the system” set up by Chairman Vince McMahon for WWE’s ongoing success.
Khan recently spoke with Sports Business Journal as the company considers a potential sale and its next media rights deal for RAW and SmackDown. WWE’s current media and content strategy puts them on solid ground as they consider the sale and negotiate the rights deal, according to officials who point to two areas that will help the company as it navigates through an unprecedented level of change – one being an increase in viewership and the other being record live event gates.
“If you look at the ratings and relevancy of our product, we like to think we’re in a good position,” Khan said.
SBJ noted how WWE has seen a year-over-year viewership gain of 5% for WWE NXT on the USA Network, 9% for RAW on the USA Network, and 8% for SmackDown on FOX. WWE’s Premium Live Events on Peacock, so far this year, are averaging viewership gains of more than 50%, according to internal numbers from company officials.
WWE is also seeing continued success at arenas. As of Monday, March 6, SmackDown had set all-time gate records in nine markets while RAW had done the same in seven markets. Premium Live Events this year, such as Elimination Chamber in Montreal and Royal Rumble in San Antonio, were the highest grossing of all-time for WWE. In January, WrestleMania 39 had already set the all-time gate record for any WrestleMania, despite being three months from the event with no match announced. In 2022, WWE set gate records for SmackDown and RAW in more than 20 markets.
Khan cited Triple H’s ability to create compelling storylines with in-ring talent as a reason why WWE has posted “gaudy” TV viewership and arena numbers. He also credited the system set up by Vince, and others who make WWE work.
“To me, the success we’ve seen in the ratings is a combination of factors,” Khan said. “Certainly Triple H, but that would also include the entire writing team, the producers, the Superstars/in-ring performers and the system that Vince set up. Like any organization that thinks it’s great, the system moves no matter who comes and who goes.”
WWE’s media rights deals with FOX and NBCUniversal/USA Network expire in 2024, and they are looking to renew those deals soon. The current five-year deals are worth $2.35 billion, while they also signed the Peacock deal in 2021, worth $1 billion over five years. Khan commented on upcoming negotiations for the rights fees.
“We look to get into the heat of the conversation first with our incumbents by the middle of the year or so. Depending on the timing and how strategic alternatives shake out, it will be either be middle of the year getting hot and heavy, or some time shortly thereafter,” he said.
Khan added that WWE deliberately timed its deals with FOX and NBCU so that the company would not be in the market with its next agreement at the same time as the NFL, which announced new deals with FOX, CBS, ESPN, NBC and Amazon in 2021, worth more than $110 billion. Regardless, WWE is now in the market for new deals at the same time as top sports properties such as NASCAR and the NBA, but Khan is confident of what WWE will be able to accomplish.
“We believe there’s plenty of money out there for us,” he said.
Khan said moving the WWE Network to Peacock made sense given the growing streaming wars taking place with the emergence of multiple new platforms.
“WWE Network didn’t seem as viable as it did in 2014 when it was launched,” he said.
The Peacock deal has been a boon for the WWE Premium Live Events shown on the platform. Khan noted that WWE has seen substantial crossover viewership from other Peacock programming, specifically Premier League soccer, Spanish-language World Cup matches and the hit series “Yellowstone” as programming that provides the most crossover viewership.
“Our audience turns out for our events, but there’s also stickiness in terms of our audience sampling other Peacock products,” Khan said. “Once our folks go to Peacock, they tend to stay there and become invested in the platform, which we certainly think is great for Peacock and great for us.”
Regarding the shows on FOX and USA, Khan said WWE uses marquee NBA regular season games on ESPN/ABC and TNT, and early round NBA Playoff games, as a measuring stick for how its own programming is performing.
SBJ pointed to how te combination of a potential company sale, and new media rights deals, create a balancing act for WWE, considering that some of the potential bidders named so far are media companies that are drawn to WWE’s extensive calendar of live entertainment. As we’ve noted, potential bidders include Endeavor Group, Comcast, Netflix, Amazon, and Disney, among others.
“That’s probably the trickiest of all the parts, but one thing that all potential buyers know is that the rights that Fox and NBCU negotiated for separately will obviously have to be adhered to and respected with all sorts of good faith attached to that,” Khan said.
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Nick Khan Talks WWE Sale, TV Deals, Peacock, More
