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WWE to BT Sport?


Hannibal Scorch

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As per @Briefcase's post in minor news, and this article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/wrestling/2019/05/16/wwe-uk-tv-rights-heading-bt-sport/

This is pretty huge if true. Sky have housed WWE since the late 80's and with the new Fox deal, you would assume it would be going nowhere, unless this is like the Channel 4 deal in 2000.

Is this enough to drive new viewers from Sky to BT?

Edited by Hannibal Scorch
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Uk and India rights were up in the air previously. I thought it was common knowledge that Sky likely wouldn't be renewing.

pre-Network, the WWE was probably a great revenue source - hours of live programming to stuff with ads, PPV's every month - but now, the PPV revenue will be in the toilet, and live viewership has dwindled. The majority of the audience are watching time-shifted cutdowns. If live ratings for Raw are >20k at the minute i'd eat a bag of bollocks.

Considering their license fee with WWE, it's probably way more cost effective to go and buy the rights to a Bellator style product - lower rights fee, attract a different demographic, get similar live viewers and be able to run the odd primetime UK show. Plus, regular terrestrial support from Channel 5 pushing to Sky Sports.

Edited by d-d-d-dAz
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I work for BT, no rumours at my end although historically they tend to keep tight lipped until something is concrete, think things were equally quiet with the Champions League stuff until they made their move. Would love Raw and Smackdown on BT Sport although I don't know how big a deal it would be in shifting folk over.

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Genuine question, but is the WWE TV product a massive 'get' in this day and age?

I mean in terms of the WWE network now being a thing and in comparison to its popularity in days gone by. Do that many people subscribe to Sky Sports just because they show WWE?

Edited by garynysmon
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3 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

Genuine question, but is the WWE TV product a massive 'get' in this day and age?

I mean in terms of the WWE network now being a thing and in comparison to its popularity in days gone by.

Doubtful, but there must be a few folk that watch it every week at the minute and would probably look at switching or adding BT Sport to their package if it moves. I'd look at adding BT Sport to mine if the price was right, but keep Sky for the football.

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11 minutes ago, Ricc1PW said:

Doubtful, but there must be a few folk that watch it every week at the minute and would probably look at switching or adding BT Sport to their package if it moves. I'd look at adding BT Sport to mine if the price was right, but keep Sky for the football.

Likewise for me as well

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It's clearly niche but it does have a completely different appeal to anything else on the sports channels and brings appeal to people who aren't necessarily into sport so it's a decent win depending on the cost. I'd be pleased with that. I currently get BT on mobile for £5 a month and cast it to the telly so it's a bargain. Sky is becoming increasingy pointless though.

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There will also be people like me that despite being prime age for this sort of thing, I'm a bit hopeless with technology and what have you and I just want my TV on my TV. IE not streaming, not having several different subscriptions to get all I have now, not having to use a console to access, or 'cast' it to the TV. I'm still not even sure what that means nevermind able to do it.

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