MLW is looking to grow in 2021 after so many had a tough 2020.
Ahead of this Wednesday's MLW King of Colosseum show, Fightful learned that MLW was speaking with multiple outlets about growing their reach in the broadcast space. MLW founder Court Bauer spoke with Fightful and confirmed the news.
"Our big goal for 2020 was to kind of grow our TV footprint in the States.] Then the pandemic hit and ad dollars go soft, programming schedules go bleak and those conversations really aren’t happening. You’re not seeing a lot of these kinds of deals happen. So, alright, we’re going to have to punt to 2021 and as soon as the counter flipped and things were getting a little more normal, ad dollars are getting better, things are getting a little bit more stable, there’s more of an appetite for new deals. We went back out there with our agency," said Bauer.
Not only was Bauer in talks with multiple networks, he managed to speak with us in between speaking with them. He went as far as to call them "major" and "tier 1" without naming them.
"I’m actually right now as we’re recording sandwiched between two Zoom calls with two major networks. I can’t name names or I’ll get into trouble, but I don’t want to complicate things there. But, I will say these are what they call tier one networks. There’s tier one, tier two, tier three, tier four. Tier one is the top of the top. So, we’re very cautiously enthusiastic about this and excited to see where this takes us. Given that the TV landscape hit the breaks last year, we’re glad there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, A lot that can happen. We’ll see where these conversations take us. But, tapings is our thing right now. To have the other side of the screen engaged to the level we’re seeing them is very important to us. I’ll say the end is a long term partner. So, these talks would expand our footprint, not subtract. But, as the only free agent right now in the game when it comes to rights fees and what we can do right now, we’re in a really good position and we’re glad to see the network folks are really interested in having those conversations right now," Bauer stated.
When pressed on the issue, Bauer said that he believes a deal would be for additional content, as opposed to MLW's flagship Fusion show that already has a variety of homes.
MLW Kings of Colosseum premieres Wednesday afternoon at 7 PM at the link below, and will be available on DAZN, beIN Sports and Fubo.
