WWE Chief Strategy & Financial Officer George Barrios held a presentation at the Bernstein Global Future of Media & Telecom Summit in Boston on Tuesday and stated that WWE’s current TV deal with NBC Universal expires the first quarter of 2019. Barring any dramatic downturn in viewership, this is the earliest that we could see RAW going back to 2 hours. WWE’s TV deals in the UK and India expire in the fourth quarter of that same year.
Barrios also noted that he could see the WWE Network offering multiple price tiers in the future.
$WWE CFO George Barrios says he could see offering multiple tiers for the WWE Network. pic.twitter.com/8dprAdOS0N
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) June 21, 2016
~1.5m average paid subs for Q2 pic.twitter.com/mpk7N3YFaZ
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) June 21, 2016
Barrios argues TV cannibalization is minimized because they have different content on each platform…
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) June 21, 2016
He doesn't mention clips of Raw and Smackdown are among the most viewed videos on their YouTube channel.
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) June 21, 2016