WWE is in the midst of its first season broadcasting its Raw property on Netflix under a 10-year agreement reportedly worth $5 billion. As the streaming company recently reported more than 300 million global subscribers, equating to an estimated reach of over 700 million people worldwide, WWE has presented the events on the platform weekly leading up to WrestleMania. The sports and entertainment promotion recently completed a three-and-a-half week tour in Europe led by chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque where Raw and other events were held in front of packed stadiums with impassioned fans looking forward to the action.
Nick Khan, the president of WWE and director at TKO Group Holdings, remembers traveling abroad and previously having trouble loading the programming in his hotel room when it was not live on Netflix. In the current iteration, users have a streamlined approach where they can quickly access the programming and view the proceedings. During a recent appearance at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Levesque acknowledged the global appeal of WWE and innovations in media platforms, pointing to the partnership with Netflix.
“This is the first time ever that it’s been simplified in a way that, globally, the world over, there’s one place, you know where it is, you know when it’s on and you can just go click on it and get there,” Levesque explained, “whereas before, it was multiple partners all over the place depending on where you were, depending on when it was on and what time and everything else under the sun.”
Khan averred that WWE receives ratings and viewership data from Netflix in real time and that the company had not done televised events ahead of WrestleMania from international locales such as Bologna, London and Barcelona. Reflecting on the enterprise, he recognized how there were significant turnouts from the fanbase and widespread triumphs by the brand.
“You can’t just pipe out American content globally and expect that it’s going to resonate,” Khan said. “You have to be boots on the ground, and that’s what Paul, the creative team, our superstars and everyone else across that was. By the way, it’s not easy, but it had to be done. It was a massive success for us in terms of live gate merchandise, and perhaps, most importantly, viewership. So it’s already working, and look for more of that from us moving forward.”
Levesque talked about how streaming can facilitate developments in other areas of the business, scaling the operation further while maintaining the ability to localize shows and connect to the setting. Through his experiences as a wrestler and content executive, he has witnessed the global resonance of WWE and believes that streaming can amplify the endeavor to cultivate more stars and have them appeal to the audience. Part of that mission is effectuated through a digital media strategy that meets younger demographics who are active on social media platforms such as X and YouTube, subsequently enticing their interest in the product.
“When you’re putting them in clip form on these things, you’re not giving away what we do,” Levesque said. “They’re like trailers, and while people will consume a lot of our content in that manner, we’re actually driving them back to the longer form content as well that they’re already very familiar with, so when you see that clip that’s of a moment that you think, ‘Man, I have to go back and watch that whole thing,’ so it’s a wonderful back and forth, and you can go there and relive those moments at any point in time.”
WWE has demonstrated perdurable qualities to sustain with its audience, and Levesque believes that it is an evergreen product. Khan acknowledged that whereas people do not generally go into the Super Bowl watching a previous iteration of the game from seven years ago, the opposite is the case with WrestleMania.
WWE utilizes a team of writers from a variety of different disciplines who cater to different parts of the product and are able to create a show that ultimately appeals to the audience by placing performers and characters in situations to optimize overall success. In the end though, the company is aiming to program for its audience around the world, especially through the deal with Netflix.
“What do people like?,” Khan said. “People like dramas, people like conflicts. They like to see conflicts being resolved one way or the other. As Paul mentioned, in our business, you get to knock each other out in a 20×20 ring. People like that too, so for us, we want to appeal to everybody.”
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