Most of the focus has been on WWE’s billion-dollar deal with ESPN for domestic streaming rights to premium live events, where there have been signs of culture clash that both sides remain committed to figuring out over the course of their existing deal.
Meanwhile, most of the complaints we hear (and make) about WWE’s billion-dollar partnership with Netflix are about advertising and editing/censorship. Those comes from fans and observers, but inside the relationship things seem great. Our latest example
of this comes from Netflix’s Vice President of Global Live Sports and Entertainment Gabe Spitzer’s appearance on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast.
Spitzer said WWE is doing the best in its oldest market, but Netflix has been pleasantly surprised to see the brand is already stronger around the world than they expected:
“I’ve been a fan for a long time and, you know, great partners over there with people like Paul Levesque and Lee Fitting and Nick Khan. They’ve been great partners. and I think we’re thrilled with the results so far.
“We knew in the US, with something like Raw having that every week, there was going to be that passionate loyal fan base and they are going to show up, and they have come in expected ways over to Netflix and in predictable ways. It’s hit every metric that we’ve hoped for on the US side.
“I think the place where we’ve been surprised in a good way and that will continue to grow is outside of the US. That’s really where we see the potential to continue to grow this partnership is, in the US we have Raw only, outside of the US in most countries around the world, we’re the home for all of WWE. So that’s Raw, that’s SmackDown, that’s NXT, and that’s the big Premium Live Events every month — be it WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, or SummerSlam.”
While there focus was mostly on Netflix’s “real sports” plays, especially the streaming giant’s relationship with the NFL, Deitsch did ask if Netflix has had conversations with WWE about content. Spitzer was specifically talking about blood and cursing, but pivoted to mention that Netflix has asked for more lead time to promote big matches — something we’ve seen with next week’s Roman Reigns/Penta set-up and build:
“Not often [do we talk to WWE about censoring content]. Obviously, there are ratings standards that anyone has to adhere to. We’re Netflix so we try to be a little looser on that.
“The place where we’ve had conversations with them around locations has also helped us… there have been examples where, with the Raw coming up in a couple of weeks, it’s leading to a big Roman Reigns championship match after this tournament they’ve done. The ability for us to promote three to four weeks out for a big Raw, starting off the year with Bron Breakker vs. CM Punk.
“That’s the type of conversation we’ve had where you potentially go to this city, or if there’s a big matchup, can you let us know three, four, five weeks in advance so we can start promoting that outside of the PLEs. They’ve been very receptive of that.”
We’ll let you weigh Spitzer’s last quote as it applies to reports WWE feels “handcuffed” by Netflix’s censors. Otherwise, we haven’t seen many signs that Netflix isn’t getting everything it thought it would, and maybe more, for its $5 billion. No wonder they keep adding more and more WWE product to their service around the globe.
How do you feel about the WWE/Netflix, in general or in light of the above? Is that strictly as a fan? What about if you’re also a (real or kayfabe) TKO stockholder?
