WWE will start negotiating new television contracts in the United States and United Kingdom next year according to George Barrios, WWE’s Chief Strategy & Financial Officer.
The broadcast contract with NBCUniversal for WWE shows in the United States on USA Network expires on September 30, 2019, while that one with Sky in the UK will expire three months later.
In a conference call with investors yesterday, Barrios said that the company is expected to announce the U.S. distribution plan for Raw and Smackdown sometime between May 2018 and September 2018, while the UK plan will be in the second half of 2018.
The contract with Sony TV for their India distribution ends in mid 2019 and WWE will start negotiations for that in the second half of 2018 as well.
While WWE scored big for their UK and India television deals, it was a major disappointment with the money they received from NBCU for Raw and Smackdown. WWE gave false impressions before the deal was signed, hinting at a major bump in the money they would get, leading for the stocks to take a big nose dive when the deal was formally announced with less revenue.
