Report: Peacock’s Failed Offer For WWE Premium Live Events Emerges

It was four years ago, in 2021, that WWE signed a deal with Peacock, which would give them exclusive streaming rights to the WWE Premium catalog. This was a big deal at that time, because ever since its launch in 2014, if anyone in the world wanted to watch PLEs live or access the WWE or WCW archive, they could just go to WWE Network and watch their favorite moments there.

The Peacock deal will end next year after WrestleMania, and recently, WWE and ESPN announced a landmark deal that would bring the PLEs to ESPN’s DTC service.

Peacock Offered $275 Million For WWE Premium Live Events

John Ourand of The Varsity revealed NBCUniversal had the right of first refusal, but they didn’t take it. ESPN is paying $1.6 billion over the course of 5 years for the premium live events.

Brandon Ross from Lightshed Partners provided more details about this WWE–ESPN deal and said that it’s way better for WWE than it seems on paper. For instance, WWE no longer has to cover the production cost. Plus, the ESPN deal is only for the premium live events. WWE can still sell its archival library to another streaming giant, which many fans are expecting to be Netflix, to keep things simple.

Peacock was interested in the PLE deal as well, and they offered $275 million to WWE, according to Dave Meltzer. However, as we now know, ESPN paid $50 million more than Peacock.

“Peacock did make an offer, and I guess the offer was allegedly in the neighborhood of about $275 million a year. WWE wanted more, obviously, and they ended up getting the $325 million, which is why they went to ESPN over Peacock. Obviously, if Peacock had offered $400 million a year, they would have stayed, but they didn’t.” (H/T The TakeDown)

The more we learn about this WWE-ESPN deal, the less consumer-friendly it seems for the fans. Not only do fans have to pay for multiple subscriptions to watch a company’s product, they’re getting fewer shows and matches per year, and potentially being subjected to even more ads, even during the premium live events.

Embed from Getty Images

TKO President Claims WWE Could’ve Gotten More Money For The PLEs

During the Q2 earnings call, TKO President Mark Shapiro talked about the WWE-ESPN deal and said they chose this deal because of the ESPN brand, and that they could’ve made more money with another WWE Premium deal.

“I think we’ve been consistent in our messaging to you that we were always a little reticent about having all of our eggs in one basket. Don’t get me wrong, when you’re doing these deals, you’re balancing monetization right of the asset and the opportunity with, of course, reach, with regard to our brand in our audience. That certainly played a factor when we went into the market. At roughly the same time, we began talking to interested parties on the UFC, we had strong interest, because, more than anything else, these are monthly, big events.”

“I would just tell you when, when all was said and done. We could have actually had a slightly higher rights fee by going with another partner, but we felt the strength of ESPN brand, the reach the platform, the makeup of their audience and their DTC strategy, which is launching soon here, was just as important as the dollars.” (H/T Fightful)

The Peacock deal first began in 2021 and will expire next year. Right now, WWE hasn’t announced a new deal for the archival content.

Main image credit: IMAGO / MediaPunch