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WWE CEO Nick Khan spoke with Sports Business Journal about WWE's relevancy as it relates to the company seeing upswings in ratings and live event business, the upcoming media rights negotiation and potential sale of WWE. Khan told the outlet, "If you look at the ratings and relevancy of our product, we like to think we’re in a good position."
When asked if the recent creative changes under Paul Levesque a.k.a. Triple H were a contributing factor, the CEO said "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.”
On the next WWE media rights negotiation, "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.”
Khan told Sports Business Journal that WWE deliberately timed its deals with Fox and NBCUniversal so that the company wouldn’t be on the market trying to lock in their next media rights agreements at the same time as the NFL. Khan, stating confidence about the future, said, "We believe there’s plenty of money out there for us.”
Khan on transitioning from the WWE Network over-the-top model to licensing to Peacock, noted,"WWE Network didn’t seem as viable as it did in 2014 when it was launched."
Khan spoke about WWE's viewership numbers on the NBC Universal streamer and their audience crossover potential, "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.”
On what a possible sale means, in regards to media rights negotiations, the WWE CEO said, "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."
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