AEW’s Media Rights Deal With Skydance Situation Update

As noted before, Paramount Skydance officially completed their acquisition deal for Warner Bros Discovery and announced a new merged company called Skydance this past October. WBD is the current media broadcast partner of AEW. AEW’s current media rights deal with WBD and Skydance expires in 2027 with an option year for 2028.

Dave Meltzer reported in a special preview edition for this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the people within Skydance who will be the ones making the key decisions are not from the sports side but from the entertainment side of the company. Meltzer reported that it is currently not known if this is better or worse for AEW but AEW CEO Tony Khan does have a good relationship with two of the key people to be involved in this process since they have worked with him for years.

Besides David Ellision, the key people AEW is working with and will be make the decision reportedly are J.B. Perrette, Co-Chair and Chief Business Officer of Skydance TV & DTC, and Channing Dungey, Head of Warner Bros. TV Group & U.S. Networks. Both work under George Cheeks, who is the Co Chair and Chief Content Officer of Skydance TV, but AEW has not worked with Cheeks in the past.

Meltzer reported that Dungey had full control of Warner Bros. Television Studios and her job has expanded to oversee all the cable stations, including TBS and TNT, under the umbrella.

Meltzer also reported that there is a streaming component which will be more important for the future in regards to being more valuable to reaching the younger audience for Skydance.

In regards to AEW, Meltzer reported that Skydance’s decision does not guarantee AEW’s long-term success due to the pro wrestling industry is a volitale business when it comes to non-WWE companies. Meltzer also reported that if Skydance makes the decision to sign a new deal or pick up the option year, that would appear to guarantee that AEW has gotten the referendum from Skydance that they see a long-term future with them.

Meltzer also reported that the biggest deal that AEW could do on paper is who would be buying the rights to their pay-per-view events, similar to what Paramount+ has done with UFC, ESPN has done with WWE, and DAZN has done with various boxing promoters. Meltzer reported that a new deal for AEW’s PPVs events would very likely be tiny compared to UFC and WWE but be certain to deliver half or more than half of what WWE does for ESPN and well over half of what UFC does for Paramount.

Meltzer also reported that the cost per show for AEW’s current deal is much lower than Skydance’s current sports deals to the point the value per viewer is higher for AEW. Meltzer also reported that the downside is on the priority and prestige list of sports, AEW can’t be considered high and it’s not being viewed by the eyes in the sports department for the decision making within Skydance.

In regards to AEW’s ratings for their shows over the past four weeks, Dynamite reportedly is up 50.8% in viewers and 84.6% in the 18-49 demographic compared to the same time period last year. Meltzer reported that when taking out the PAC tribute show, Dynamite’s number is 36.6% growth in viewers and 66.2% in 18-49.

Collision’s growth reportedly is 53.7% in viewers and 67.0% in 18-49 compared to the same time period last year.

In comparisons with WWE’s SmackDown and NXT shows for the same time period, SmackDown is up 15.4% in viewers and up 14.5% in 18-49 while NXT is up 8.2% in viewers and up 33.7% in 18-49 when taking out NXT’s head-to-head show against AEW.

Meltzer speculated that if Skydance didn’t need to cut $6 billion in costs after Paramount’s acquisition of WBD and merger into a new company, then AEW would be safe in regards to getting a new deal from Skydance.

Meltzer reported that things can easily change with how the television and media industry moves with Major League Wrestling being an example of MLW owner Court Bauer claiming that he was in talks with Paramount+ several years ago and how nothing was signed but they were led to believe they were very strong on a deal being made. Bauer had talked about how all of sudden some of the people they were talking with were no longer there with positions having changed so rapidly and things between the two sides went cold.

Meltzer also reported that Skydance cutting the fast channel that aired Women of Wrestling and NWA and syndication of WOW are products with so much lower value and either could be viewed as them seeing AEW as its wrestling product for priority or they were just smaller products with no great popularity that could be eliminated for cost savings reasons.

In regards to TKO Group, Meltzer reported that Bauer had talked about how MLW’s talks for a deal went flat at the same time as Paramount + made their massive deal to get UFC. Bauer had stated that he doesn’t know if that was coincidental or not. Meltzer reported that WWE very much does not want AEW to get renewed with the belief that AEW losing this deal would be greatly detrimental and in a best case scenario, all real competition against them would be dead unless AEW could get a similar deal elsewhere.

Meltzer also reported that TKO CEO Ari Emanuel is close to Ellison and speculated that TKO could offer SmackDown to Skydance after WWE’s current media rights deal with USA Network expires in September of 2029. Meltzer also reported that while SmackDown is not getting the numbers on USA Network that they would have expected when the deal was signed, WWE is a valuable asset and is a guaranteed top rated cable show that will win the night on cable most Fridays. Meltzer reported that the downside would the much higher price tag it would cost Skydance to get SmackDown.