The new AEW media rights deal is for three years with another option year if Warner Bros. Discovery decides to extend their partnership.
The $150 million per year quoted is just the base figure, with the deal reportedly worth closer to $180 million in the second and third year when factoring in the pay-per-views on Max and also other programming that will be coming. A fourth option year would bring in more revenue.
Pay-per-view marketing will be centered around Max and fans will get a discount if they buy the AEW shows on the streaming service versus paying full price on other providers such as Triller, YouTube, or PPV.COM. An exact time frame on when that starts was not revealed as the ability to provide pay-per-views on the service is still being worked on.
The biggest win in the deal is also the ability for Dynamite and Collision to simulcast on Max starting next year. That means for those fans in the United States who do not have cable television, they can still watch the shows through their Max subscription.
The Sports Business Journal also revealed that with this new deal, “WBD also keeps its equity stake in AEW,” but the size of it was not disclosed. There were unconfirmed rumors before that WBD owns a piece of AEW which was seemingly confirmed by SBJ.
The deal is far less than the rumored $1 billion figure that was floated around last year.
