Warner Bros. Discovery will livestream the wrestling promotion’s weekly TV shows at the same time that they air on cable.
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Welcome to the streaming era of the wrestling wars. WWE’s flagship weekly show, Raw, is ditching cable and headed for Netflix in January. And today, Warner Bros. Discovery and All Elite Wrestling announced a multiyear rights extension that will bring AEW content to Max starting in… you guessed it… January 2025. The news was first reported by Variety.
Tony Khan’s wrestling promotion will gain a significant presence on the popular streaming service. Episodes of AEW’s weekly shows, Dynamite and Collision, will simulcast on Max on Wednesday and Saturday nights in addition to airing on TBS and TNT, respectively. Past episodes will also be available to watch on demand. AEW’s TV programming has aired on WBD networks from the very start, so the migration to Max has been a long time coming.
“This extension continues the tradition of iconic wrestling events broadcast on TBS and TNT, while also establishing a new legacy for AEW through weekly live streams on Max for years to come,” Khan said in a statement.
Also beginning next year, AEW’s pay-per-view events will be offered to Max subscribers at a discounted rate. That’s a notable difference from WWE’s current model in the US, which lets fans stream premium live events as part of a standard Peacock subscription without paying anything extra. But it seems AEW isn’t ready to give up the revenue it brings in from standalone event purchases. It’s not yet known what the discount will be; AEW says more details will be shared “in the coming months.”
Until now, AEW fans have had to purchase pay-per-views from a hodgepodge of lesser-known services including Bleacher Report and TrillerTV — or directly from a cable / satellite provider. Recently, YouTube also began offering the events. But with the new arrangement, AEW says “all marketing and promotions of those PPV events [will be] exclusively centered on Max.”
The new rights deal, which totals around $150 million per year according to Variety’s sources, is yet another example of the demand that streamers have for live sports and sports-adjacent content. Warner Bros. Discovery is preparing to launch Venu Sports, which has been dubbed the ultimate sports streaming service with partners Disney and Fox later this year for $42.99 per month.
