At this time, we still aren’t sure where WWE programming will be following the company’s next media rights deal.
WWE President Nick Khan recently spoke at MoffettNathanson’s Inaugural Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference about a wide variety of subjects. While discussing the possibility of WWE programming ending up on a streaming service as part of their new media rights deal, Khan said while they like broadcast, he can see the appeal of what the streaming market is currently providing.
“We like broadcast, but if you look at what Amazon has done with Thursday Night Football, and folks can say that viewership is down. It’s worked because it keeps people engaged in Prime and obviously they went out and got a high-priced, capable broadcast team,” Nick Khan said. “They are having NBC produced it because obviously it needed to look great if they were going to have big programming.
“It’s worked great for them. What we believe Amazon is looking to do, is they want to program nights of the week. If you look at the PAC 12, if we were advising the PAC 12, and we’re not, we’d say, ‘Go full in on Amazon.’ Yes, you may get smaller viewership, but if you can get the right deal in place for the PAC 12, which is primarily west coast based, you can do east coast prime time games that start at 5 o’clock local and get people engaged on Saturdays.
“For us with Friday Night SmackDown, which was on Thursdays prior to going on Fox and Tuesdays before that. We could go any night of the week. For entities looking to program any night of the week, we think we’re attractive to them as well.” [H/T: Fightful]
READ MORE: Nick Khan: WWE Will Be ‘Pretty Aggressive’ With Cutting Costs
What do you make of Nick Khan’s comments? Would you like to see RAW or SmackDown on a streaming service instead of cable? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
