TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro spoke today at the the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference.
While discussing TKO’s business outlook, Shapiro said the company is all about building new stars, and not depending too much on past champions. He specifically put the spotlight on WWE NXT, and the expectation that a couple of stars there are on the verge of breaking out.
“For us, we sit squarely at the center of sports and entertainment, and that overall ecosystem. That’s where
we are. And we stand out because we’re year round. We happen to own the league; you’re not going through a lot of webs to get decisions made, or to innovate.
We’re scalable. We’re global. We’re young. We’re diverse. We have high engagement, which builds over the course of the night across our cards.
And we’re always building. We don’t rest on our laurels. We don’t rely on past champions. We’re always building new stars. In fact in the WWE, we’ve actually added some cards for NXT, because we think we have a couple of stars that are about to pop, and we want to give them more stage time, if you will.
I would also tell you at TKO, we institutionalize events built on scarcity, and durable repricing power…”
Shapiro also commented on how Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery can greatly benefit TKO. UFC and Zuffa Boxing are TKO properties that currently have long-term media right deals with Paramount. Shapiro said TKO is “really excited” about these promotions running events that will air on WBD networks like TBS, TNT, and HBO.
“We’re really excited by what is ahead, and that is when and if they close their Warner Bros. deal, which at this point everything looks thumbs up, and I think it should happen, by the way. We’re gonna benefit from that.
We have an opportunity to have UFC and Zuffa Boxing not just on the Paramount networks as you know them now, but TNT, which is known as a sports network; TBS, which is known as a sports network; HBO, which has historically been a big boxing network. And then you throw Bleacher Report in there. Not to mention, if you really pay attention to what they’re doing from a marketing standpoint, and the way they’re distributing content, they have all kinds of partnerships with YouTube. And we will benefit from that as well.”
TBS and TNT are currently the home of AEW’s weekly TV shows Dynamite and Collision, respectively. AEW is the biggest rival promotion to TKO-owned WWE, of course. There has naturally been a lot of speculation and rumors about what will happen to AEW’s TV deal once Paramount takes over WBD. For whatever it’s worth, AEW President Tony Khan has publicly said that he would “love” to be on the same channel as UFC.
It sounds like TKO is also excited to eventually be on the networks that are currently AEW’s TV home, though I’m guessing it is TKO’s strong preference for AEW to not be living there anymore when that times comes.
What do you make of the very rich TKO exec’s comments on NXT stars popping and UFC potentially airing on WBD networks? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
