9 months ago
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WWE and parent company TKO Group Holdings are celebrating a $5 billion deal with Netflix for the U.S. TV rights to "WWE Raw," among other international broadcast properties on the streaming service. WWE CCO Paul Levesque gave his take on the deal during the WWE Royal Rumble Press Conference.
"My reaction to that deal is holy s***," he said. "It's amazing... How will it change sports and entertainment is actually the better phrasing of the question. I think the world sees a shifting ecosystem when it comes to where people consume and view things. In a moment when you see a lot of people dipping their toe in the water of streaming services and trying different things. Since the beginning, WWE has been the ground-breakers and first movers."
Levesque touted WWE as an innovator in closed-circuit TV broadcasting and the pay-per-view industry, before moving on to the genesis of the WWE Network streaming platform. He claimed the Network — launched in February 2014 — led to an industry-wide move to streaming in the world of professional wrestling, and the company continued to innovate when it moved onto a bundled service with Peacock. With that in mind, the Netflix agreement is yet another example of the company's innovation, and it will lead to more exposure.
"Everybody will be watching this, everybody. Hopefully, everybody will be watching the shows, but they will be watching to see what takes place here. We are once again in front of that. It is an incredible feeling. When you talk about a deal that is 10 years, $5 billion, it is hard not to be excited about this. This is an incredible week," Levesque concluded.
