The big news on Thursday is that WWE finally announced a new multi-year television deal with NBCUniversal that will keep RAW, SmackDown and Total Divas on USA, SyFy and E!, respectively, for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately – no financial terms were disclosed during the announcement, which sent WWE shares plunging over 20% to just over $15 per share.
Vince McMahon has assured investors multiple times that WWE expects to “double or triple” their TV rights fees (previously around $140 million per year), but they were clearly not happy when this news did not accompany Thursday’s announcement.
WWE’s stock is now back to where it was in December 2013, when excitement began building for the WWE Network and this new TV deal. Expectations hit a fever pitch in February and March, when the stock peaked at over $31 on hopes that the Network would deliver at least 1 million subscribers and WWE could double or triple their TV rights fees. The first report of Network subscribers came in substantially lower than expected (under 700,000) and now the news of a TV deal without hard numbers is taking another huge toll on the company.