The Daily Caller logo
Editorial

Netflix’s $5 Billion Deal With WWE Shows The Future Of Sports Media Is Off-Cable

Entertainment Industry Workers Vote To Strike, Threatening Hollywood Productions

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Robert McGreevy Reporter
Font Size:

Netflix and the WWE agreed to a massive 10-year deal to exclusively stream WWE Raw for over $5 billion, the WWE announced Tuesday morning.

Netflix will begin streaming WWE Raw in 2025, according to a WWE Corporate press release. The incredible deal marks the streaming service’s first big foray into the sports content market after competitors like Amazon, Apple, Disney and NBC Universal have spent big money on exclusive rights to sporting events in recent years.

In the streaming era, live sports have become the last bastion of valuable advertising revenue as one of the few remaining content options viewers rarely stream after the fact.


But the move to streaming won’t be all sunshine and roses. There are legitimate concerns over access, like the ones that sprung up from NBC’s recent Peacock-exclusive NFL playoff game.

While change is inevitable, sports are the one place Americans can go to to escape the horrors of an increasingly dystopian modern world. So while change is a part of life, sports are the one thing we don’t want to see change drastically.

In this case, fans and pundits alike are concerned the move to Netflix, scheduled for January 2025, would remove Raw from its iconic Monday night timeslot. Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show to announce the deal, WWE President Nick Khan assured former NFL cornerback Darius Butler there were no plans to move the hit program from its slot.

“At this moment in time it remains Monday night Raw, but keep in mind we got 10 and a half months until this deal is up and running,” Khan professed.

The move off of linear cable means Raw will lose the right to call itself “the longest-running weekly episodic program” in TV, marking a huge blow to cable companies everywhere.

Cable’s die off won’t be immediate. CBS just announced a record audience for Sunday’s Chiefs vs. Bills playoff game of over 50 million viewers.

`

But still, as streaming giants and media companies continue to open their massive wallets to add sports to their collections, linear media will continue to become less appealing to potential advertisers who will likely find more value in online advertising. (RELATED: Disney Losing More Than $1.5 Billion Every Year After Spectrum Shuns ESPN: REPORT)

Like it or not, streaming is the future. But in a fragmented media world, cord cutters may find themselves coming full circle. A football and wrestling fan who is a fan of certain baseball, hockey and basketball teams may find himself needing to pay for Netflix ($6.99), Peacock ($5.99), Amazon Prime ($14.99) and Apple TV+ ($9.99) to assure he doesn’t miss a game.

With all plans simply at the basic level that’s already over $35 a month. While that’s cheaper than many cable subscriptions for now, streaming services are notorious for jacking up their prices once they’ve eliminated competition.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters ✔ ✔ ✔
Daily Caller Shows ✔ ✔ ✔
Ad Free Experience ✔ ✔ ✔
Exclusive Articles ✔ ✔ ✔
Custom Newsletters ✔ ✔ ✔
Editor Daily Rundown ✔ ✔ ✔
Behind The Scenes Coverage ✔ ✔
Award Winning Documentaries ✔ ✔
Patriot War Room ✔ ✔
Patriot Live Chat ✔ ✔
Exclusive Events ✔
Gold Membership Card ✔
Tucker Mug ✔

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel