WWE Monday Night Raw will move from USA Network to Netflix starting January 2025 as part of a significant streaming agreement. WWE content will also be housed on a massive streaming platform outside of the United States.
The agreement, which is estimated to be worth $5 billion and spans ten years, represents a major step forward for Netflix in its live event business. Raw will now be streamed live every Monday night for 52 weeks in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Latin America, with additional territories to be added later.
During his recent appearance on Impaulsive, former professional wrestler Triple H talked about the WWE’s $5 billion deal with Netflix and praised the streaming behemoth for recognizing the value of their content.
Netflix Acquires WWE ‘Raw’ Rights In A $5 Billion Deal
In an effort to expand its live content offerings, Netflix has struck a multibillion-dollar, ten-year deal for the exclusive rights to W.W.E.’s flagship weekly wrestling show, Raw.
Raw will be available on Netflix beginning in January of next year, according to a statement from Netflix and W.W.E.’s parent company, TKO Group. The rights to stream W.W.E.’s other episodes and specials outside of the US will belong to Netflix as well.
According to TKO Group in a regulatory filing, Netflix will pay more than $5 billion for the ten-year deal, which has a five-year option to extend or opt-out. A few hours later, Netflix announced in an earnings report that it had grown its subscriber base by 13.1 million, marking the biggest quarterly gain in the history of the business (per the NY Times):
Netflix’s chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, stated in a statement:
“We will be able to deliver more joy and value for their audiences and our members by combining our reach, recommendations, and fandom with W.W.E.”
Netflix has recently been experimenting with live streaming; the acquisition of the rights to Raw further solidifies this endeavor. The comedy special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage marked Netflix’s debut live event, which took place in March 2023. In April, they staged a live Love Is Blind reunion special as a follow-up. Since then, they have broadcast a number of live events; the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards was the most recent.
A part of Netflix’s push into “sports-adjacent” live events is the July fight between Mike Tyson and influencer turned boxer Jake Paul (see Variety).
Triple H Discusses WWE’s Game-Changing Netflix Partnership
Per THR, Mike Tyson will square off against Jake Paul in what Netflix is referring to as a “boxing mega-event” as part of its massive foray into the combat sports industry. The event, which will be live-streamed from AT&T Stadium in Dallas on July 20, is a joint effort between Netflix and Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.
Though tickets will be sold to fill the 80,000-seat arena, the match will be available to all Netflix subscribers (many other boxing matches still operate on a pay-per-view basis). Triple H recently discussed his excitement regarding the WWE’s partnership with Netflix in an interview on the Impaulsive podcast, saying that it would enable them to reach a larger audience:
“That might potentially be seen the day cable died, right? Because Cable’s on the decline, people were switching to streaming… Well, its exciting and going to be monumental.”
When asked about Paul’s decision to forego the pay-per-view model for his fight, Triple H praised the YouTube star turned boxer for acknowledging the changing landscape of content consumption. The latter shared:
“When I first heard that deal and saw the announcement, just like everybody else did, I was like, ‘he’s gonna fight Tyson and just in my mind, I was like, ‘That will be good pay per view. That will be cool.”
A source with knowledge of the agreement described the terms of the deal to stream the match as significant. With documentaries on teams and athletes in the NFL, MLB, NBA, Formula 1, pro tennis, and other sports now available or soon to be added to the service, Netflix has emerged as a major player in the sports documentary market.
