Carlos Silva on Current Status of TNA’s Talks for New TV Deal & His Plans To Expand TNA’s Reach In The United States

As noted before, TNA Wrestling is currently seeking a new media rights deal for around $10 million per year and there is the potential of Anthem selling off their sports division if TNA continues to not be profitable as a company.

A recent episode of the Battleground Podcast featured TNA President Carlos Silva as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Silva providing an update on the current status of TNA’s talks for a new television deal.

“You know, I think every day it gets closer. I certainly think Slammiversary and the kind of fan, social, the buzz, talking with you and so many others now that we’ve gone past it — all of it matters. But like [all] of these things, and I’ve done it throughout my career, you need to work hard every single day to be there. And if you work hard every single day to be there and you perform and the product’s great, then you get lucky. Luck doesn’t just happen because it happens, it happens because we keep doing these things every single day. That’s going to be what gets us a TV deal.

Look, everyone notices — the media space is about buzz. It’s about creating this feeling of getting bigger and growing. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. So, is it going to help? Yeah. Is it done yet? No, it’s not done yet. But I’m working on it today and I’m working on it tomorrow. And it’s my focus to get that done. And there’s a couple of different options that we’re working on, and we’re going to keep pushing every day.”

In a separate recent interview with Fightful, Silva gave his thoughts about his current plans to expand TNA’s reach in the United States.

“It’s something that I’ve worked on since the day I got here. I knew it was gonna be part of my job and the team that I’ve assembled to continue to build the distribution of TNA. TNA is a great product and when you have a great product, the key is that more people get to see the great product. Right now we’re doing that in a lot of different ways. AXIS TV is a is part of the Anthem in sports and entertainment family. We own it and Andy Schuon runs it on the entertainment side and is my colleague and partner. It’s been great.

We do very well on AXS TV, but as you know, in the world of cable channels, they’re not growing and they’re not getting more widely distributed. So not as many people get to see TNA as we’d all like. We have done some great deals in other countries. did a great deal with Sportsnet in Canada. Now, more people in Canada are aware of TNA. We did a great deal with Claro down in Mexico and 12 South American countries. Great for TNA in those countries, as well as over in India with a big deal with WBD that we’ve had.”

Silva also gave his thoughts about them working closely with their CAA partner to navigate the constantly changing media landscape and this past Sunday’s Slammiversary 2025 event success potentially going a long way to help them secure a new television deal.

“Those are gonna continue to grow, but my focus is getting more fans in America to see TNA, and we’re working hard at it. It’s going well, but like everything, you gotta get the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed. There’s a lot of moving parts in the media space right now. As you know, every single day we see a new strategy, a new platform, a new digital company, a new cable channel that’s being sold, whatever it is. So we’re trying to navigate through all those waters, but so far so good.

We’re working with CAA as our partner to help us with that. It’s been great. They’re great partners to help us, and I think as we kind of get through this summer, we’re gonna get a deal done. I think Slammiversary will be a big part of helping us to get the deal done because it will be a big show, and all those things help.”

Silva also gave his praise of TNA’s TNA+ streaming service and their partnership with Endeavor.

“It’s going great. TNA+ has been a great platform. Endeavor actually powers TNA+ as our platform provider there. They’ve been a great partner. I think it plays into it. There’s a lot of moving pieces with all these distribution deals. There’s the iMPACT!show, there’s the Xplosion show, there’s 6,000 hours in a library, there’s TNA+, there’s our pay-per-views, there’s our PLEs. I think all of those pieces, if each piece is strong, you have a better chance of getting a better deal. So we’ve been concentrating on creating strength across all of them. So far, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, and we just have to work through it.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com, Fightful.com