Nick Khan has discussed WWE’s newest take care of ESPN and the way it got here about.
As a part of the deal, WWE will air PLEs domestically on ESPN, and Khan stated in his appearance on “The Varsity” podcast that the move from Peacock to ESPN is an enormous step up for them.
“You already know, the media rights marketplace, I believe, to any reasonable person taking a look at it has type of turn out to be reflective, relatively speaking, in fact, of the US economy, where the upper-tier products proceed to go up, the premium content continues to get premium pricing. And the lower-tier content continues to type of make its way. It’s the center that got squeezed a bit. And fortunately for WWE and our shareholders and our fans, we’re not in the center,” said Khan. “So it’s a big step up. It’s an ideal platform for us. And to have WWE, what we consider to be the primary sports entertainment product on the earth on probably the most family-friendly apparatus [ESPN] is big for all of us.”
The WWE President revealed that several streaming services were keen to partner with WWE, particularly after witnessing how WWE operated in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was one in all the few live programs airing weekly.
“It was real [interest from other streamers], and we occur to be in a great position. Timing at all times matters on this stuff. And take into consideration this, the Peacock deal, we struck at the peak of pre-vaccine COVID. So, a pair of things, we at all times think you would like slightly little bit of luck in these deals. The luck there definitely, you recognize, COVID was a disaster for everyone. However the luck there was that the Olympic Games had been postponed for a yr, and Peacock needed content.”
Khan added that fans who follow WWE also sampled other offerings on Peacock, which he feels can even be the case once they move to ESPN. He believes that streaming services and DirecTV can coexist in parallel, as he feels that older people still use DirecTV, while the younger audience has shifted to streaming services.