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Welcome to PWInsider.com's live, ongoing coverage of the TKO, WWE's parent company, earnings call covering the second quarter of 2025.
Seth Zaslow welcomed everyone to the call.
They ran prepared remarks from Ari Emmanuel. He said the company momentum continued this quarter. The results showed their ability to drive growth and profitability. He praised the new ESPN deal. He ran down the highlights of WWE and UFC business. He noted MITB was the highest grossing arena event of all time for WWE. He noted the 113,000+ attendance for Summerslam in New Jersey. They set 36 records and had 16 sellouts. Raw has been in Netflix's top ten every week since debuting. PLEs have made Top Ten Lists in 36 Netflix countries.
Andrew Schleimer ran down all the financials.
Mark Shapiro and Andrew Schleimer handled the Q&A.
They were asked what they felt the differences going forward with ESPN will be. Shapiro said they may have been able to get a greater rights fees with another platform but wanted to tap into the ESPN audience. They will stream all ten and some of them will be on linear as well. They noted they could simulcast the first hour or so on both and then shift to the streaming side. The wrestling audience is a loyal audience. The WWE and UFC product attract not just new subs to the service but new subbers who never subbed anywhere before. They are getting a huge step up in money. There's further monetization opportunity as well.
Andrew said 5 documentaries, 6 NXT PLEs and their archives are not included in the ESPN deal, which were part of the Peacock deal and they have the chance to take that elsewhere and monetize that as well.
Nick Khan jumped in and explained the WWE audience will follow them where they go. 96% of the USA Network audience moved with them to SyFy when they were shifted there during the Olympics with little notice. Every WWE Network subscriber shifted to Peacock. The audience will always travel with them.
They have five properties in the market in the same time - UFC, Zuffa Boxing, WWE PLE and PBR. They are in the "home stretch" on UFC rights and will announce when they have something to announce. The market for big event programming remains strong.
Mark said their goal is to increase profitability and create bigger margins. All the bells and whistles add up. They want to do film and documentaries with the WWE crew and they want to go out and sell them. They are going to maximize their archives. Not every deal is equal.
The WWE ESPN deal does not mean there will be no new ESPN UFC deal.
Summerslam is becoming "another" Wrestlemania for them and site fees will help get them where they want to be financially.
WWE was a blank canvas when it came to sponsorships "walking in." Going out and selling integrations, the mat, the arena, etc. was all fertile ground and they are optimistic as to what else they can do.
They want to drive the value of WWE and UFC. They need to remain laser focused on integrating IMG and On Location into TKO to create savings. They are proud of the success they have, but don't take it lightly. Their first ESPN PLE has to have the feel of a Super Bowl. They expect to have that type of treatment on ESPN.
They talked up TKO boxing as a major tent pole asset for TKO going forward. It has multi-generational interest. They are receiving a $10 million fee for overseeing operations. They have no financial investment. They are looking to do 2-3 super fights a year and get a fee to promote it and get a fee for media rights they negotiate.
That was it for the call.
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