Daddy Zaslav Math: Wrestling = NBA

[Mark Jeffries]

Still hurting from the misbegotten decision to let the NBA package fly out of their hands to  Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that it has extended its relationship with All Elite Wrestling  (the promotion that isn't the WWE), with the weekly TBS and TNT programs to be also streamed live on Max (God, John Oliver must be proud by now), along with future pay-per-view events (which will be an extra charge):

https://www.thewrap.com/warner-bros-discovery-all-elite-wrestling-media-rights-renewal/

Remember, friends, Max--it's not HBO, it's just TV.

[M-D November]

I'll take the PPV piece of this first - AEW's PPVs were previously carried in the US by BleacherReport.com, a Turner/TNT Sports website, but it never made a ton of sense in that B/R never had a TV-centric streaming app, so to have PPVs move to Max is really more lateral than anything else.

As far as live-streaming AEW programming, I have to assume this is viewed as a way to stay competitive with Netflix (which will be taking on WWE Raw in the US and ALL WWE programming - new and archived - internationally starting in 2025) and Peacock (which is still the home of the WWE"s back catalog [save for NXT, which has moved to the CW app] and Premium Live Events).  Zaslav would be foolish to think this is somehow going to fill the Shaq-sized hole created by losing rights to the NBA, but rasslin' has proven to be a consistent revenue draw, so there is some logic in maintaining the relationship.