[Bennyboy84]

metro.co.uk 

Netflix to be new home of WWE in the UK from 2025 | Metro News
WWE gets new home for UK fans with streaming deal for Raw, SmackDown, NXT and pr…
  Source: metro.co.uk

I bet there will be a huge drop in TNT Sports subs when the switch takes place. My Virgin contract ends in December so I probably won’t be keeping TNT Sports

[Brekkie]

Certainly still a loyal WWE following, many of whom who will only be subscribing for that.

I assume there are still WWE pay per view events so be interesting to see if Netflix throw them in or charge extra.

[ptikobj]

Great news for UK viewers. WWE have gone from strength to strength in the last few years under Triple H's leadership, but being behind the TNT Sports paywall has seriously limited their reach in this country. I suspect this means their viewing figures will finally catch up with AEW (who currently have a lot more UK viewers by virtue of being on ITV), though we probably won't find out due to Netflix being famously secretive about their numbers.

I assume there are still WWE pay per view events so be interesting to see if Netflix throw them in or charge extra.

WWE moved away from the pay-per-view strategy a while ago. They're called "Premium Live Events" now, and are available on streaming services (Peacock in the US, and currently the standalone WWE Network over here), so I presume Netflix won't be charging extra for them.

[callumwatchestelly]

I cannot imagine this will be the only company that's wanting a slice of the Netflix pie. There's a wide door open for the UFC when you consider the WWE and UFC are both under the Endeavor brand and different sports companies ears will for sure perk up.

A new era for Netflix: mark my words.

[Rdd]

Last time I paid any serious attention to WWE it was so long ago that it was still called WWF, aired on a Friday early evening on Sky One(!), and most casual viewers still had no idea that the regular commentator, Vince McMahon, was actually the ringmaster of it all.

However this is a really interesting move for Netflix, in that they’ve generally stayed away from entering into the live events realm. So this is a big strategic departure for them, and having paid so much for the rights they’ll want to see that pay off. WWE is an easy one in some ways, it doesn’t require any host broadcaster duties, that other live events might require. So I’m not sure if this is something that will lead to other things, although being under the same corporate roof UFC is an obvious candidate.

[thegeek]

they might not have any host broadcaster duties, but they will need to work out what to do through the breaks - I suppose they've got the best part of a year in which to get their targeted ad insertion working on live streams (or fill it with something else for people who are paying for the non-ad supported tiers?)

WWE do produce a highlights edit of each weekly show, but BT/TNT don't use it - I think partly because it wasn't delivered fast enough, and then would still require a compliance edit to be made suitable for daytime viewing.

IIRC, WWE Network carries the PPV events live, but the rest of the content available about a month later - so you still need to subscribe to two services if you want to keep up to date on the storylines of both.

[Paul O’Brien]

they might not have any host broadcaster duties, but they will need to work out what to do through the breaks - I suppose they've got the best part of a year in which to get their targeted ad insertion working on live streams (or fill it with something else for people who are paying for the non-ad supported tiers?

Raw and Smackdown generally take their ad breaks during matches. The wrestlers are already performing through the break for the live audience so I assume subscribers on the no ads tier will just be shown that bit.

[MorganLamia]

I haven't watched full episodes of WWE (just clips on YouTube every now and then and a couple of Royal Rumbles and Wrestlemanias around 5 years ago) since 2000-ish when I watched it on Sky One on weekend mornings in my early teens.
I may actually get back into it thanks to this since we already have Netflix. I was never a HUGE fan, but it was enjoyable at the time. It seems pretty watered down nowadays compared to back then though.

[Transmission]

Raw and Smackdown generally take their ad breaks during matches. The wrestlers are already performing through the break for the live audience so I assume subscribers on the no ads tier will just be shown that bit.

That would require WWE to change to how they produce their feeds, as they fade to black during breaks, unless it's one where the US broadcaster is doing picture-in-picture ads, where they keep pictures running but mute the sound.

The Netflix deal is big enough that presumably they'll come up for something for Smackdown and NXT. And of course RAW will be produced for Netflix so they won't need to have breaks if they don't want to (though that begs the question of whether they'll provide break opportunities for the other broadcasters not covered by the Netflix deal!).

[ptikobj]

A bit of an update today: this was pretty much expected when the Netflix deal was announced, but today it was confirmed that WWE Network will close down at the end of the year, with the archive going to Netflix, similar to what happened with the Peacock deal in the US.

Regarding ads, currently for PLEs they show pre-recorded match previews for WWE Network and Peacock Premium subscribers, while those on ad-supported Peacock get ad breaks. I've seen conflicting reports as to whether they'll take a similar approach on Netflix.