WWE's partnership with ESPN begins Saturday with Wrestlepalooza from Indianapolis.
The biggest question from fans, though, isn't what the result will be in the mixed tag team match when World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins and Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch take on CM Punk and AJ Lee. It is if they will be able to see it without paying extra.
WWE premium live events are on the ESPN Unlimited streaming service, which launched last month as part of the network's direct-to-consumer product.
Those who subscribe to Spectrum, DIRECTV, Fubo TV, Hulu Live TV and Verizon Fios have access to WWE's premium live events as part of those companies reaching agreements with Disney that made an ESPN Unlimited subscription as a part of their TV plan.
Those subscribers still need to activate their subscriptions, if they have not already done so.
Other cable, satellite and streaming subscribers who already got ESPN+ automatically migrated to the new direct-to-consumer service when it launched last month. But that would be for ESPN Select, meaning they will have to upgrade or sign up for the plan in the app, which is $29.25 per month.
John Lasker, the senior vice president of ESPN+, said during a conference call that negotiations are continuing with other carriers looking to add ESPN Unlimited to their agreements.
“I think the best way to answer that is, without specifically calling out any MVPD (carrier or distributor) here, by the return of this calendar year, we are expecting the vast majority of our ESPN subscriber base to have access to ESPN Unlimited. We’re working hard to make that not be vast majority, but all, and we’re doing that as soon as we possibly can,” he said.
ESPN takes over streaming WWE’s major events from Peacock, who had carried them since March 2021. When ESPN and the WWE originally announced the deal, it wasn’t supposed to happen until early 2026.
Peacock will be the exclusive home of “Saturday Night’s Main Event,” beginning Nov. 1. That will include John Cena’s retirement match on Dec. 13.
Even though ESPN is carrying WWE events for the first time, the network has had many of its personalities on the air as guests over the years, including some in its famous “This Is SportsCenter” ads, and John Cena being a central figure on the new app ads. ESPN's website has also had a WWE section for awhile.
The five-year agreement makes plenty of sense as ESPN looks to grow its subscriber base, attract cord cutters and differentiate its app and direct-to-consumer service. After all, the E in ESPN stands for entertainment.
Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria said the reason why the streaming giant gained the rights to “Monday Night Raw” earlier this year is that the WWE has a multigenerational and loyal fan base that will flock to whoever carries the events.
“It was pretty hard not to get a bit nostalgic of just how special WWE is, how much it means to people, how much it’s part of the fabric of culture and has really stood the test of time,” said Matt Kenny, ESPN's vice president of programming and acquisitions.
“SportsCenter” with Elle Duncan will air from Indianapolis on Friday while ESPN will air a special “Road to Wrestlepalooza” show Saturday afternoon. That leads into WWE's two-hour preshow at 5 p.m. EDT before Wrestlepalooza begins.
Indiana Pacers star and longtime WWE fan Tyrese Haliburton will also be part of the coverage.
Lasker is also hoping that Saturday night's busy college football slate and a WWE card will bring more value to ESPN.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released earlier this week found sports fans are likelier to use a combination of streaming services and traditional TV options to access their favorite sports. About 4 in 10 people who follow sports “extremely” or “very” closely use both cable and satellite TV and a streaming platform. That’s compared with about 2 in 10 people who follow sports “somewhat” closely.
“So, fans are going to be sitting there on Saturday night and watching Wrestlepalooza and Miami-Florida at the same time. Our hope is it’s just going to drive more interest and engagement in the WWE and vice versa, that hopefully WWE fans that are coming to us get to sort of experience and become fans of a lot of the other sort of sports content that we’ll be able to present to them,” Lasker said. “There’s growth and opportunity and sort of excitement in terms of how we serve sports fans irrespective of the sort of competitive set. The more sports fans that are on our platform Saturday night watching various things is good for all of us.”
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