WWE announced the following on Monday.
WWE & Bleacher Report reach multi-year global content partnership; How does this affect AEW?
Bleacher Report and WWE have reached a new multi-year content partnership that will bring WWE’s biggest moments, Superstars and stories to B/R’s massive global audience of sports fans.
Per the agreement, Bleacher Report will hold global highlight rights across WWE’s programming slate, including Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, NXT and WWE Premium Live Events such as WrestleMania®, with content distributed across Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, B/R Wrestling — Bleacher Report’s dedicated wrestling brand — and their associated social and digital platforms.
The partnership further expands Bleacher Report’s industry-leading portfolio of content relationships across sports. B/R partners with the world’s biggest leagues and properties including the NFL, NCAA, MLB, NHL and NBA, to bring fans closer to the favorite athletes, teams and moments. Adding WWE to its portfolio reflects B/R’s broader strategy to serve fans across the full spectrum of sports and sports culture, particularly around properties that inspire passionate, year-round conversation.
Beyond highlights, Bleacher Report will have a ringside presence at select WWE PLEs, with B/R and House of Highlights content teams capturing original storytelling, talent-driven content and behind-the-scenes moments.
“WWE fans don’t just watch. They are highly engaged, analyze every detail and debate the sport all week long. That’s exactly the kind of passionate fandom B/R and House of Highlights were built for,” said Bennett Spector, General Manager, Bleacher Report. “This partnership gives us the opportunity to bring fans closer to the biggest moments happening today while also tapping into the incredible history and personalities that have made WWE part of sports culture for generations.”
“Bleacher Report has long been at the intersection of sports and culture,” said Alex Varga, EVP, WWE. “Our partnership with B/R reinforces WWE’s commitment to bringing our content to a global audience.”
WWE coverage will begin rolling out across Bleacher Report and House of Highlights platforms leading into WWE Money in the Bank on Saturday, October 10.
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F4WOnline reached out to Bleacher Report to inquire how this new deal might affect AEW, as Bleacher Report is part of TNT Sports.
F4WOnline indicates a spokesman from Warner Bros Discovery provided clarification to the publication regarding the new WWE agreement.
-B/R is part of TNT Sports which is a separate division within WBD. While WBD has a “significant” relationship with AEW in the U.S. only, this deal with WWE is global. “One doesn’t replace or diminish the other.”
-B/R has existing relationships with various sports properties that compete with each other from teams to leagues to organizations. They consider themselves a “broad sports platform” where those relationships enable to them to “serve fans across the full range of their interests” and “doesn’t require choosing one property over another,”
-What B/R hopes to gain from the deal is to further broaden what it can offer content-wise to wrestling fans and “not redistribute a fixed amount of attention from one wrestling property to another.”
The spokesperson further noted there is no mandate for a specific allocation of posts or promotion within the deal and that B/R “will respond to the stories, talent and moments that matter to fans.”
AEW’s existing media rights deal held by Warner Bros Discover is set to expire at the end of 2027 with an option year. Paramount Skydance is expected to acquire WBD very soon, which has already caused much speculation and more questions than answers as it pertains to AEW’s future on TBS, TNT and HBO Max.
Tony Khan has previously said the Paramount/WBD merger, would be “Great” for AEW, while calling the merger “tremendous” while further stating the combination of HBO Max and Paramount will boost AEW’s viewership and help expand the pay-per-view and streaming audience.
The post WWE announces multi-year global content partnership with Bleacher Report appeared first on WWE News, WWE Results, AEW News, AEW Results.
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