WWE Selling Pay-Per-View Rights To ESPN?
Are WWE PPVs about to go from the Network to ESPN+?
ESPN looking like the current frontrunners to score WWE's pay-per-view rights following Vince McMahon's recent confirmation that his promotion is actively shopping its biggest shows around major streaming platforms.
Dave Meltzer notes in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter that while he hasn't been able to confirm a deal, WWE and ESPN have been in talks regarding putting content on the ESPN+ OTT service - presumably the pay-per-views, which will soon be taken off the WWE Network.
This would likely work similarly to the UFC's current situation on ESPN+. The service itself is a $4.99-a-month subscription, then an additional $64.99 per show. Per the writeup, whether or not a company like ESPN would pay somewhere between $140 million and $160 million for content on the $4.99/month tier is debatable, so WWE fans would likely need to stump out the addition per-event cost as well. Maybe not $64.99, but something.
Going from paying $9.99 for Network access to stumping up a much higher price for individual pay-per-views would be a hard sell for many WWE fan. Such a deal could, however, net WWE a massive windfall, further future-proofing a company whose latest financial results largely fell short of expectations.