WWE's 'Raw' to stream live on Netflix in deal with TKO
Netflix (NFLX) has announced a landmark 10-year deal with the TKO Group (TKO) — the parent company of UFC and the WWE — to add WWE's "Raw" to its live sports streaming ventures starting in 2025.
Yahoo Finance Entertainment Reporter Alexandra Canal breaks down the details.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
JOSH LIPTON: Here on Netflix, making a long term deal to bring WWE's flagship program, "Raw," to the streaming service. This marks a major programming shift for "Raw" as it gears up to leave linear television for the first time. Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal is here with the details. Allie?
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Hi. And you know what, guys? This made me think about all of the streaming services out there, big and small, that are competing for the sports rights. And this is something that Netflix has said over the past year or so they're not really interested in doing. They don't want to go too deep into sports. Now, you could argue WWE it's more live sports entertainment, perhaps, and if you look at--
JOSH LIPTON: --it sports, Allie? Is it sports?
ALEXANDRA CANAL: That is the big question here.
JULIE HYMAN: I like the, I like that framing, live sports entertainment.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yes, and that's what analysts have really said. We haven't quite seen Netflix dive into the live sports component just yet. And if you take a look at a company like Amazon-- I mean, they shelled out over $100 billion for their deal with the NFL. Comcast Peacock paid $110 million for one playoff game for the NFL. So this is serious money that we're talking here. And Netflix has historically said, and historically, I'm saying in the past year or so, in sports rights have really become more of an opportunity here that they're not ready to spend that kind of money just yet.
Now, across Wall Street, across the industry, they say they're gonna have to at some point. I mean, sports is the last frontier for streaming, and what does that mean for the cable bundle? The cable bundle, I mean, it's gonna be dead. I think, in the next 10 years, we're not going to see cable coming around much more because sports is really the one thing that's hooking consumers, that's hooking viewers to continue to pay for those types of packages. If you can get that on streaming, why would you continue to pay for cable? So that's something that I think is going to be a major shift in the industry moving forward.
JOSH LIPTON: Whether it's sports is interesting, and I'm not trying to insult WWE, and I got producers in my control room. Huge fans, I would never disrespect the athletes who are that much bigger, but it's sort of like, when I think about WWE, I think like live, unscripted kind of storytelling.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: And some even say it is scripted.
JULIE HYMAN: --like, listen, if "Is It Cake?" is already on Netflix, you could argue they're already in the live sports entertainment business.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
JULIE HYMAN: Like they have all this competition shows, right? Isn't that the kinda the same thing?
ALEXANDRA CANAL: They had the Squid Game competition.
JOSH LIPTON: That feels like a very elastic definition of sports at that point, I got to tell you. I don't think that's what people were thinking when they think sports and Netflix. I think that's where they're going. The question is whether this is like paving the way to real sports. I don't know if WWE--
ALEXANDRA CANAL: I do think it is the first step for Netflix to really start to embrace-- I don't-- I hesitate to say real sports, but you know, I think like NFL, MLB, those types of things. But we'll see if they'll get there.
JOSH LIPTON: Yeah.
