Netflix, prior to the deal, made it clear that they were interested in diving into the world of sports. But as time passed, Netflix showed that they were willing to bet high stakes, they were at the big tables. The result was this WWE deal.
On January 23rd, both parties made it official: WWE will be coming to OTT platforms for several regions such as the U.S., Canada, UK, and Latin America, with some additional territories. Though India isn’t a part of this till now, Sony holds the rights.
The grandeur of this is definitely unquestionable, and keeping the numbers in mind, this deal has to be profitable, it has to work. And after the recent merger of WWE and UFC under TKO, the new management has definitely improved the ratings.
Now, let’s get a bit nerdy, shall we?
In Q1, WWE’s weekly shows saw improvements in the key demo ratings year over year, while total viewership remained mostly steady. “Smackdown” increased by 15% in the adults 18-49 demographic, averaging 892,000 viewers per episode, and by 3% in total viewers with 2.4 million viewers.
“Raw” rose by 6% in the demo with 733,000 viewers but declined by 7% in total viewers with 1.7 million. “NXT” had the biggest percentage increase, up 31% in the demo to 242,000 viewers and 7% in total viewers with 646,000 per episode. “Smackdown” and “Raw” ranked number one in their respective time slots for key demographics.
Talking about the main viewership, it does maintain a PG-13 viewership, which is indeed extremely different from its older content such as the Attitude era or Ruthless Aggression era.
Now, will Netflix benefit from this deal?
Talking about the average WWE viewership, it is around 2M-2.3M based on the show, but Netflix is far bigger than the viewership. In total, it has around 290M users, and talking about the regions in which Netflix will be streaming it, they have around 100M users.
So, WWE will definitely get a massive boost, but there lies a big problem. Usually, a good number of viewers opt for TV, which will definitely impact the watch as well. But, it will also have exposure to a mass of new people.
Now, the $10B deal is sort of overpaying, but if Netflix manages to advertise it well, they can make a massive fortune out of it.
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