More Details On WWE Deal With Fox
If you thought the Saudi Arabian money was big...
More details have emerged following yesterday's revelation of a supposedly "massive" deal between WWE and the Fox Network to start airing SmackDown from October 2019.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the agreement is said to be worth a staggering $205 million per year, for an expected duration of five-years. That's right: one billion dollars! Such an astronomical figure represents a three-fold increase on the current arrangement with NBCUniversal.
The publication further noted that WWE apparently received a bid even greater than Fox's, but executives were lured by the Murdoch empire's "commitment to heavily promote SmackDown across a robust sports portfolio that includes the NFL and Major League Baseball." No further details on this mystery second candidate are known.
No official statement has been made by either party on the deal at present. Since it was informally announced, WWE stock has risen 11% to $57 per share, marking a 30% increase since rumours of a potential arrangement with Fox first surfaced this Thursday.