In a multi-year deal, NBCUniversal’s Peacock Streaming service has secured the U.S. Streaming rights to the WWE Networks. In the deal, WWE’s existing U.S. subscribers (about 1.1 million in total) will be migrated over to Peacock Premium. From there, they will continue to get access to WWE Network but will pay 50% less per month. In addition, they will get full access to the version of the Peacock Premium tier with ads. For the NBCU’ Peacock, this is a “transformative addition.”
Said Rick Cordella, Peacock’s EVP and chief revenue officer:
“We have a lot of data that shows live events and sports drives a lot of user acquisition,” he said. “The bet is that there exists a much larger total available audience [for WWE programming] than is on WWE Network today.”
Via the agreement, Peacock will launch WWE Network on March 18, 2021, when Peacock will begin the rollout of more than 17,000 hours of WWE Network new, original, and library programming (both on-demand and on a new 24-hour channel). Exactly how the transition for existing WWE Network subscribers will be ported over is still in planning and will be revealed soon.
As for the cost of the deal, financial details were not disclosed initially but the NBCU streamer will have all WWE live events — for no additional charge — including WrestleMania and SummerSlam. The upcoming Fastlane will be the first event to stream on Peacock on Sunday, March 21. (WWE fans who would prefer to order events via traditional pay-per-view will still have that option.)
For those of you who are subscribers of the WWE Network, is this a positive announcement for you? It certainly sounds like a financial savings. Share your thoughts with us at Geek Vibes Nation.
Source: Variety
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Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
