Last year WWE launched their new partnership with ESPN, but it appears that the deal is already in jeopardy. BJ Bethel of SEScoops.com is reporting that only one year into their deal with WWE, ESPN has already decided they won’t be renewing the contract when the deal expires.
According to the report multiple sources noted that the deal faced several problems including the current media market, failure of cable companies to pick up the cost of the app for customers, and “culture and synergy” issues between the two companies.
ESPN and WWE signed a five year deal worth $1.6 billion dollars in 2025 to bring WWE premium live events to ESPN’s new streaming app. It’s being reported that the deal came together at an executive level within Disney and TKO.
One source noted that there were virtually no discussions between WWE and ESPN when the streaming app was launched and WWE premium live events began airing on it. Recently that changed as ESPN has been putting more effort into promoting WWE content.
Sports Media Watch reported earlier this week that the annual and monthly rate for the app will be increasing next month. The price of the app through the Hulu and Disney+ bundle changed last week.
Disney had viewed the new ESPN app as a way to recoup carriage-fee losses now that less people are subscribing to cable packages. The WWE PLEs were viewed by Disney as something of an incentive for providers to offer the app to their customers. With providers now picking up the app it’s up to ESPN to sell it directly to customers, which wasn’t something that was considered when the app was launched, as press releases noted that it would be available through cable providers.
When asked if anything could potentially save the deal one source pointed to either a massive increase in subscriptions for the app, or a deal being made for providers to pick the app up.