WWE's Monday Night Raw has acquired a new home for live programming: Netflix.
The streaming giant has reached a deal with WWE to begin producing live episodes of Monday Night Raw starting in 2025. The deal is huge, with reports saying it could top out at $500 million annually over 10 years.variety report Monday Night Raw is currently worth about $250 million to $260 million a year, significantly more than what Netflix bought the production for. Netflix will stream Raw in the US, UK, Canada, and Latin America.
This isn't the first time Netflix has gotten into the live streaming game. In March 2023, Chris Rock's comedy special “Selective Outrage” went live on his Netflix. Furthermore, the reunion of “Love is Blind” in April was produced live, bug So people couldn't watch until more than an hour after their scheduled time.
Since then, Netflix has livestreamed the Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony and cross-promoted golf matches between golfers from the show Full Swing and Formula 1 drivers from the popular show F1: Drive to Survive. However, Monday Night Raw airs live every Monday, so this will be something completely different. This is an unprecedented initiative for Netflix, so it will be very important to see how it plays out in 2025.
Reactions to the deal have been mixed, with some being pleasantly surprised by the deal and others questioning Netflix's ability to produce live streams. Technical issues will probably be an issue at first, but Netflix also allows him to watch exclusive WWE content, which could be beneficial. Don't increase subscription prices.
For me, this is the most appealing part of the deal with Netflix. Netflix allows him to opt out of this contract after five years, and he has an option for the team for an additional 10 years.
A lot can happen in five months, let alone five years, but the prospect of WWE potentially entering into a 20-year partnership with Netflix is crazy. pic.twitter.com/7ZWY2G0wlT
— Jeff J. (@JeffJSays) January 23, 2024
Netflix isn't allowed to offer WWE $5 billion while pretending they don't have the money to make more seasons of Mindhunter
— Ross W. Berman IV (Unrated Director's Cut) (@RossWBermanIV) January 23, 2024
All in all, this is a big move for WWE and the future of streaming. $5 billion over 10 years is a huge deal, and one that could eventually bring WWE documentaries and live shows like NXT and Smackdown to Netflix, making WWE a big deal as a streaming giant. Potential for rapid growth. But it's becoming increasingly impossible to keep cable afloat, and with streaming conglomerates spending big bucks buying production rights, cable will soon be going crazy, if it hasn't gone crazy already. Probably.
