WWE’s current television contracts were the source of conversation recently and it looks like WWE might have found a home for both of their signature shows.
NBC Universal agreed to a huge deal to keep Raw and estimates of that deal are massive ranging around $300-$400 million. But they had to drop SmackDown Live thus putting the Blue Brand on the open market for bidding.
There were apparently a couple options WWE could have gone with in regards to their new television deal including a possible jump to an online streaming option like Amazon or Facebook. After all, WWE did get a lot of money per episode from the Mixed Match Challenge as Bryan Alvarez noted on Wrestling Observer Live WWE made around $100,000 for every twenty-minute episode that took virtually no extra cost to produce for WWE.
ESPN reports WWE and Fox have come to a deal to bring SmackDown Live to Fox starting in October 2019. It might be a while until this move actually happens but the idea of Tuesday nights being up in the air is apparently no longer the case.
The Wrap later reported that SmackDown Live will now move to Fridays as well.
WWE declined to comment on the matter after being asked by ESPN. So no specifics were noted concerning the deal but that will likely come out in time. However, the deal is said to be a massive one leading us to wonder what kind of offer WWE agreed on. Therefore it looks like NBC Universal dropping SmackDown Live didn’t hurt negotiations after all.
Specifics of this deal still yet to be made clear includes exactly which Fox channel SmackDown Live is destined for as well as if WWE was able to keep their Blue Brand at two hours in length.
But as of right now at least we have an idea which network we’re going to tune into next year to catch SmackDown Live and all the amazing Superstars under their roof.
