Investment banking and asset management firm Needham believes that Amazon is the leading candidate to land WWE’s pay-per-view streaming rights, with one of its analysts Laura Martin going as far as saying that the tech company could even bid to completely purchase WWE if the deal goes through.
“We believe that such a licensing deal would put Amazon in the best spot to purchase all of WWE, whenever the family is ready to exit,” Martin said. “WWE’s live programming is highly differentiated and its Raw, Smackdown and NXT brands are worth more than being any one of 500 series that have no builtin audience or brand.”
Amazon is not new to streaming rights and has already streamed certain games from the NFL and the English Premier League.
Vince McMahon hinted yesterday that one of the options that the company is exploring is selling off its PPV rights, moving them from the Network to a major streaming partner. He said that discussions are so far advanced that they could potentially announce a deal by the end of the quarter.
