The Hollywood Reporter website is carrying the story of Smackdown moving to FOX saying that FOX will sign a mega five-year deal WWE worth more than $1 billion.
The proposed Smackdown deal is $205 million per year and will see Smackdown moving back to network television and not on FOX Sports 1. This will give Smackdown more homes and a big push on a major network. TheWrap.com adds that FOX is thinking of moving Smackdown to Friday nights rather than leaving it on Tuesdays.
THR also adds that WWE got an even bigger bid for the show from someone else but the idea of moving Smackdown to the network that carries NFL and MLB sounded more interesting to WWE. NBCUniversal paid just $30 million for the rights of Smackdown back in 2010.
FOX is also to home of UFC, at least for now. It’s not known if FOX will also bid for UFC’s broadcast rights which expire at the end of this year. Interesting enough, the same agency is negotiating the television rights for both WWE and UFC and the UFC recently closed a $750 million deal with ESPN+ to broadcast several live events exclusively on their new OTT service which is similar to the WWE Network.
