Recently, there were raising speculations that WWE President Nick Khan and Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H" were working on the show"s new TV rights deal.
Speculations about the impending agreement started when high-ranking executives Khan and Levesque missed the WWE Raw event.
Their absence stirred rumors that they were focusing on finalizing a new agreement for the show"s television rights with many perceiving their absence as a signal that a new deal was nearing completion.
Contrary to widespread speculation, Mark Shaprio, President and Chief Operating Officer at TKO Group Holdings, revealed during the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference that an agreement might not actually be on the horizon.
TKO exec: WWE could wait until night before current ‘Raw’ deal expires to make new TV deal https://t.co/x7cXOvmcjj pic.twitter.com/9oQM4Cy6ua
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 6, 2023
According to him, the negotiations were ongoing and could potentially extend up to the end of the existing contract with NBC Universal in October 2024.
"There’s no necessarily shiny point of when or if we’ll go," Shapiro said. "We can be flexible, we can be patient. Our job is to maximize the rights value of Raw. And I would tell you at the same time, just remember that we do all the production. We just feed. You kind of take it in and you air it or you charge for it. So we can literally wait until the night before [the current deal expires] if we want to wait to decide where we’re going to go in the next deal."
$TKO COO Mark Shapiro yesterday at the UBS media conference said they can make a deal for WWE Raw rights before an NBA deal is done or could wait until literally the night before the current deal with NBCU expires next fall. pic.twitter.com/yJ8jAomAJF
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) December 5, 2023
The possibility of not having to rush a pact offers leverage to WWE in its bargaining.
However, waiting until the day before the expiration of the present deal isn"t the most ideal scenario.
This strategy, despite providing negotiating power, also comes with drawbacks and risks, giving an unpredictable timeline for the deal.
While negotiations continue for Raw"s TV rights, WWE has successfully renewed agreements for its other popular shows, SmackDown and NXT.
These renewals came despite their existing deals with NBC Universal and The CW not due to expire until October 2024.
Raw, being the flagship show of WWE, has been linked to various big-name networks, including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBC Universal.
There"s also the possibility of the show switching to streaming platforms.
Despite Shapiro"s insights, many believe that WWE would finalize a deal much sooner rather than waiting until October.
