PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

WWE PRESIDENT NICK KHAN DISCUSSES WWE NETWORK CHANGES, WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SMACKDOWN ON FOX AND MORE

WWE President Nick Khan spoke to The Wrap about today's WWE announcement that NBC's streaming service Peacock will take over WWE's domestic streaming rights.  Highlights from the conversation:

How The Deal Benefits WWE: "So, so here’s what it is. Vince McMahon and the WWF, at the time, were the first movers from closed circuit to pay-per-view in the early ’80s, the first mover in the sports/entertainment space, outside of Netflix, to the SVOD model in 2014, and we believe the first mover, again, in this deal to partner with a massive conglomerate that has significant reach, in order to serve our fans and expand our audience.  So I’ll give you an example: Peacock is free in the [24 million] Comcast cable and Cox cable homes, as I’m sure you know, so…for the first time ever, WrestleMania, which is our Super Bowl, is going to be available for free to those homes. In addition to that, it cuts the cost for our consumers from $9.99 a month for WWE Network to $4.99 a month on the ad-supported tier of Peacock, where they’ll get not only WWE but EPL (English Premier League), “The Office,” Dick Wolf and so many other titles."

What this means for Smackdown and FOX: "We’re confident and happy with our Fox/”SmackDown” relationship, which still has multiple years left on it. So nothing has changed in that arena."

Whether this deal was a reaction to losing live touring: "It wasn’t a consideration. We expect that we’re going to have fans at WrestleMania in a couple of months and expect that, when it can safely come back — above and beyond partial capacity — we’ll be one of the first ones to go. Keep in mind also, our events are typically priced fan-friendly, so that loss was not a deciding factor in this deal."

To read more, click here.

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet