World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment pulled off its top annual event, SummerSlam, in Las Vegas this month and is now looking to line up global business to reach historic revenue.
With its U.S. media rights secure, WWE wants to land global deals for its WWE Network streaming service. Although the world’s largest wrestling company dismantled the service in the U.S., it still serves as an international component. WWE wants similar streaming-rights deals like the one it has with CNBC parent company NBCUniversal, betting that its weekly wrestling content and classic library will lure media companies around the world.
WWE has agreements with Fox Sports and NBCUniversal, including a $1 billion agreement to stream U.S. content on NBCUniversal’s Peacock service. The company also has linear and streaming-rights packages internationally with networks including Virgin Media (Ireland), United Kingdom-based BT Sport and Sony India. Additionally, WWE has a deal with sports streaming service DAZN to show events in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, along with a streaming deal in China with online platform iQIYI, which is owned by tech company Baidu.
The combined media deals helped WWE bring in $475.9 million of its $529.1 million in revenue for the first six months of 2021. Last year, WWE made $868.2 million from media rights, not including revenue from the Peacock deal, which started in March. WWE is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and has a $3.6 billion market…
