Nick Khan commented on the difficulties of growing the WWE Network's subscriber base.
On Monday, January 25, it was announced that WWE and NBCUniversal reached a multi-year agreement giving Peacock the exclusive streaming rights to WWE Network content for American viewers. While WWE President Nick Khan is happy with the financials of the deal and the number of households that will be exposed to the product, he is also attempting to explain why the Network never gained the traction those within the company were projecting at its launch.
Per Bloomberg, Khan claims that the challenge was growing the Network from where it currently sits at roughly 1.2 million subscribers in the United States (with an additional 400,000 internationally). He also said that “it’s tough to get people who aren’t fans to sample a product when you have to subscribe to see it.”
WWE airs on NBC's USA cable network every Monday and Wednesday with RAW and NXT, so there was an existing relationship between the two organizations.
Rather than standing alone while media giants such as Comcast, Walt Disney Co. and AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia stockpile content and build their libraries, Khan believes that WWE made the right decision, saying the following:
“In a world where all the media behemoths have pivoted to streaming, I think history will show it was a brilliant move to partner with them."
The deal is reportedly for five-years and worth more than $1 billion according to Wall Street Journal.
The current plan will see Peacock launch the WWE Network on March 18 and the first pay-per-view event streamed on the service will be WWE Fastlane on Sunday, March 21.
You can find more information on the deal by clicking here.
