Triple H look at Wrestlemania 41 Saturday at the alleging stadium on April 19, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Georgiana Dallas | WWE | Getty images
WWE arrives in ESPN.
THE Disney-The sports and entertainment activities will pay an average of $ 325 million a year for five years of American rights on the biggest live events in WWE, notably Wrestlemania, the Royal Rumble and Summerslam, from 2026, according to people familiar with the case who refused to appoint the agreement. WWE and ESPN spokespersons refused to comment.
Nbcuniversal Peacock had already paid $ 180 million a year over five years for the package, according to two people familiar with the problem.
The 10 premium live events of WWE broadcast each year on the new direct platform for consumers of $ 29.99 per month in select select events will be simultaneous on the ESPN linear networks.
Disney said quarterly profits on Wednesday that showed interior ESPN income up 1% to 3.93 billion dollars.
WWE and ESPN have strategically approached in recent years, said TKO Group The president and chief of operation Mark Shapiro in an interview. TKO is the WWE controlling owner. Shapiro, himself, was a manager superior to ESPN in the early 2000s.
“In many ways, this is our destiny,” said Shapiro. “If you want to extend the public, our fans base, the fervor around WWE and grow on a real important national scale, you cannot do it with regard to the world of sport without associating with ESPN.”
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro said he would have been interested in bidding on the package of events even if ESPN was not about to make his debut on his new streaming service. However, the addition of events, at no additional cost, for digital product subscribers will help reduce unsubscribe for professional struggle and help develop ESPN beyond traditional sports.
“Our place was built as the network of entertainment and sport programs,” said Pitaro, referring to the literal meaning of the acronym “, espn.” “It is a fantastic way for us to expand our audience. It is younger, it is more diverse and it is more feminine than what we see at the network level.”
Thirty-eight percent WWE audience is women, noted WWE president Nick Khan. About 50% of people attending the live WWE events come with children, he said in an interview.
“It is a multi -generational visualization, and we think that ESPN is a multigenic visualization,” said Khan.
In 2024, WWE signed an agreement of $ 5 billion with $ 10 billion with Netflix To broadcast “RAW” every Monday evening, from this year. Netflix will continue to disseminate WWE marquee events outside the United States
“Smackdown”, which broadcast on Friday on USA Network, will continue to broadcast on Peacock. This agreement expired in 2029, according to people familiar with the issue.
Disclosure: Comcast has NBCUNIVERSAL, the parent company of CNBC and USA Network.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that ESPN will hold the rights to disseminate WWE Premium live events in the United States Netflix holds these rights outside the United States