The Hollywood Reporter today published a detailed article covering how FOX hammered out a five-year billion dollar deal for WWE’s ‘Smackdown Live‘. The article notes that WWE executives Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, George Barrios, and Michelle Wilson met with FOX executives including company’s patriarch Rupert Murdoch on the morning of May 17th.
The exclusive negotiating window for NBC Universal closed the previous day, and the word within the entertainment industry at the time was that NBCU was looking to only retain ‘Monday Night RAW‘ on USA Network at the end of their current deal.
One of the biggest quotes from the meeting, came from Murdoch who reportedly said NBCU was “embarrassed by your product.” FOX then added the lure of treating WWE as part of their content package giving the proposed weekly show promotion across all of their broadcasts which include NFL and MLB sports.
FOX also proposed a weekly studio show on FS1.
If both separate deals close as expected, starting in October 2019, Fox will broadcast SmackDown for five years. THR also reports that NBCU will continue with Raw, paying $265 million per year, according to sources, with the two deals valued at $2.35 billion over five years. This is a huge increase over the $130 million WWE is getting on their current deal with NBCU.
