WWE TV negotiations update, Viacom looking to get back into the wrestling biz

[trick]

From Meltzer:

With the New Year, and two of the biggest sports business stories of 2018 being the WWE and UFC television deal negotiations, there has been a lot of speculation in and out of media based around the idea of WWE moving from USA Network to a FOX deal.

It is well known that Paul Levesque had a preliminary meeting, although it was only that, several months ago with the heads of FOX Sports. The gist of the speculation is that if FOX doesn’t sign UFC, and they move to another network, that they would go after WWE because they would have so much air time to fill on FS 1 and FS 2, which relies greatly on UFC product.

There’s also talk that they may buy WWE, so they have them for good and don’t have to worry in the future about escalating television rights and losing them, similar to what Viacom did with Bellator and what a couple of networks (including FOX) were interested in doing with UFC before the bidding broke $3.5 billion and they dropped out.

Evidently Viacom has also expressed interest in pro wrestling, but as an owner, like with Bellator, for the same long-term reasons, and that talk isn’t centered around WWE. That talk is clearly as preliminary as it could be, given nothing has broken on it.

Still, one person close to the situation believes McMahon isn’t interested in selling his majority interest just yet, feeling that the stock will soar because they will get a big increase in television rights. If the shares hit $40, he could continue to do what he’s doing, and sell small pieces of it off while maintaining full voting control. If there’s a UFC level offer, I can’t imagine WWE not selling at that price.

Some of the talk going around is that if this happens, and it’s all a big if, Raw would move to FOX, with the idea that in moving it to the big network, it would not only give it the level of exposure to make it hugely popular once again, but it would give the WWE network legitimacy. A strong positive in all this is that if Raw was to move to FOX, it would have to be cut back to two hours, from 8-10 p.m., because so many FOX stations have a 10 p.m. newscast.

Smackdown would then be put on FS 1, as a way to boost its ratings and I wouldn’t be surprised for them to try and get more content to fill time on FS 1 and FS 2 since UFC fills so many hours.

But if FOX signs UFC, which is still a strong possibility, all of that would become less likely. It’s not impossible to have both on the network, as they are different products, and there is benefit as Spike found in using the big pro wrestling television audience as a lead-in, because even if wrestling doesn’t deliver good ad rates, if you keep those extra viewers for UFC, that has much stronger ad rates per viewer so the value of the viewer is increased greatly. But on the surface that’s difficult because UFC is an established Saturday night entity and you wouldn’t want to change that often, and WWE is Monday and Tuesday.

It should be noted that this strategy dates back to talks almost one full year ago and things could be very different now past it’s known FOX is interested in WWE if they lose UFC. With FOX selling so many of its stations. They are cash rich right now.

UFC wanted its deal pretty much done at this point, but there’s no sign that is the case. WWE wants its future home decided by May, even though the move, if there is one, wouldn’t be until October 2019.

So to summarize, WWE's fate is tied wth the UFC's. Viacom wants to get back into pro wrestling by buying one of the smaller companies. I doubt ROH is for sale, so maybe Impact or LU?

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

2 hour Raw

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

If WWE goes back to Viacom, I won't be able to watch since Viacom pulled their shyt from Playstation Vue. Their greedy CEO is forcing all these streaming cable services to pony up to get their channels in a last ditch effort to support all the cable companies

 

[StatUS]

I think Viacom might do its own thing or try to reel back WWE. ROH is with Sinclair, Impact should still be with Anthem, and Lucha Underground is owned by MGM I think. So there would have to be a buyout unless I'm wrong.

As far as Fox goes they're probably going to do everything they can to keep UFC so WWE playing 2nd choice is inevitable if Vince and co want to move. I'm guessing the only threat to Fox for UFC is ESPN.

Flip side, shrinking Raw to two hours would do wonders for that show so I'm kinda hoping they move

 

[RammerJammer]

I think Viacom might do its own thing or try to reel back WWE. ROH is with Sinclair, Impact should still be with Anthem, and Lucha Underground is owned by MGM I think. So there would have to be a buyout unless I'm wrong.

As far as Fox goes they're probably going to do everything they can to keep UFC so WWE playing 2nd choice is inevitable if Vince and co want to move. I'm guessing the only threat to Fox for UFC is ESPN.

Flip side, shrinking Raw to two hours would do wonders for that show so I'm kinda hoping they move

Less McMahons on the screen

 

[Chris Cool]

Sunday night heat back on MTV

 

[dh86]

USA just gave a show to Miz. They are completely desperate and grasping for anything. WWE is staying

 

[Heelish]

Sunday night heat back on MTV

Wrestling Society X back on MTV2

 

[RammerJammer]

Wrestling Society X back on MTV2

If anything, 205 Live would be on MTV2, which could give the Cruiserweight division new life.

 

[Art Barr]

It would fukk it up just like before.

Also, geo hour raw would hurt the enlxtra forty five minutes of ad time the show got in exchange for fifteen minutes of show run time. I just think this is talk. Last time Vince hated the move.
So, unless he sells I don't see this as real.


Art Barr

 

[Roman Brady]

Lol at viacom wanting back into wrestling, they trashed TNA when they thought bellator was going to usher in spike sports, how is that working out? TNA has never recovered production and content wise

Viacom can go to hell

 

[AKM-95]

A Primetime wrestling show on broadcast tv would be huge for WWE. But I wounder how much they would lose selling Raw separately but offering a package with special events/SD/and NXT to networks?

As for Viacom I think making a play for TNA but getting some stock would probably be the best move for them unless there willing to start from scratch with aerolucha, Corrigan's NWA, or there own promotion.

 

[Ill Lou Malnati]

Highly unlikely.

 

[JerseyBoy23]

This actually all makes sense. If the Disney deal goes through, FOX won't own any of their scripted productions anymore and it's been reported that they'd focus on news, sports and reality shows. Putting RAW on plugs up 2 hours of television so they'd only have to worry about the rest of the week.

I don't know where Viacom would put RAW now that they're changing Spike to the Paramount Network.

 

[jackswstd]

Does anyone even have FS2? Serious question.