For several years, one singular question has persisted in media circles: When will Netflix get into the sports game? I don’t know that anyone ever pegged the WWE as its first partner.
So it was quite a shock to see the announcement that Monday Night Raw would begin airing on Netflix in 2025 as part of a massive $5 billion deal.
Make no mistake about it: this is an absolute win for the wrestling promotion. There is simply no other way to view it. You could argue it might be a bad thing for the WWE to put its marquee TV product on a streaming-only platform, but this isn’t your average streaming service. This is Netflix. Thee streaming service. By the time the contract begins, Netflix will be in as many — if not more — homes than cable.
But the intrigue will be there from non-sports entertainment fans, too. I’m sure the WWE doesn’t have much negative to say about USA Network, but it is one of those channels you have to go specifically find. On Netflix? Monday Night Raw is absolutely going to be featured front-and-center on the preeminent streaming platform, which will make it drastically easier to draw in new fans.
However, I think it’s important to view this deal from a 1,000-foot view and look at where things looked headed before the Netflix deal. After it was announced FOX Sports wasn’t going to retain its rights for SmackDown and the show would be moving to USA, there were major questions about what players were going to be interested in shelling out the money that Monday Night Raw would command.
The WWE’s biggest TV property — outside of its standalone pay-per-view events like the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania — was hitting the market at one of the worst times in recent memory. The NBA TV deal is coming up, NASCAR recently struck a new deal, the College Football Playoffs are expanding, and not to mention a college conference with more than 100 years of history just collapsed explicitly because it didn’t get the television revenue it expected.
No one had any reason to expect Netflix would be a major player or a potential savior for the promotion. It had shown lukewarm — which is probably being kind — interest in being a home for sports content outside of a documentary series here and there.
But to its credit, the WWE isn’t on a similar playing field as the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, college football, or whatever league you’d like to point out. The company’s brand is built around storytelling, which the streaming platform is obviously going to be interested in.
I’ve shared in this space before I’m the casualist of casual WWE fans. I’ll watch the Royal Rumble on Saturday (and likely say “Who the f— is that guy?” several times), and won’t watch again until Wrestlemania. But I can’t pretend that it won’t be significantly easier for me to engage with the company’s content going forward when it begins airing Monday Night Raw on Netflix in 2025.
My immediate reaction to seeing the news was questioning what the partnership means for the future of the WWE Network, which is currently housed on Peacock. There is still plenty of time to figure that out, but if things go well between Netflix and WWE in the first portion of the deal, could an expanded partnership be on the horizon?
Let’s not put the cart before the horse.
Ultimately, a Netflix and WWE partnership makes plenty of sense. Despite it not being a landing spot that jumped off the page over and over again, WWE brass deserve high praise for their ability to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the proverbial hat. At a time when it appeared as if options for Monday Night Raw were dwindling, the company’s executives pulled off a deal that not only gives the promotion a boatload of cash, but also puts it in one of the most envious positions in all of sports media — on the front page of the streaming revolution.
It’s a win for the WWE, as it now sees a massive expanded reach. It’s a win for Netflix, who can now justify an increase — and potentially a drastic one at that — in its subscription fees. The wrestling promotion will make a boatload of money in merchandise, branded segments, and other avenues with the deal, and the streaming platform will make boatloads of money from new subscriptions, advertising revenue (don’t think for one second that you’re about to get three hours of uninterrupted Monday Night Raw), and other avenues.
It’s a rare media rights deal that both sides and walk out of the meeting room feeling incredibly good about the deal just struck.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
