Vince McMahon recently noted on a conference call that WWE could potentially sell their content to a streaming service, and now it looks like the company is making moves.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there is no deal in place right now, but there have been talks between WWE and ESPN.
The talks are regarding WWE content on ESPN+ and it’s believed that WWE is trying to broker a deal, similar to UFC, that would see the company sell the PPV rights to the streaming service.
The idea is that the streaming service would pay more than WWE could make on its own from selling direct to consumers via the WWE Network.
It’s being said that the UFC deal with ESPN+ opened their eyes, but the difference is that UFC pay-per-views on the service require a $4.99 subscription and a $64.99 price tag for the event.
At this point it’s not clear if ESPN+ or another streaming service would be willing to pay somewhere in the range of $140 million to $160 million for rights o something that would be part of the regular tier, or if it would make more sense to have consumers purchase a subscription as well as the pay-per-view.
It was also noted that when ESPN owns a product they use their shows to market the product heavily, so WWE’s events and big stars would get far more mainstream exposure.
