Ari Emanuel Bloomberg interview, talks Raw TV rights and Vince McMahon

[Chris]

Endeavor and TKO Group Holdings CEO Ari Emanuel spoke about the state of WWE TV rights negotiations during an interview with Bloomberg Live.

TKO announced a deal for WWE SmackDown to return to the USA Network last month. While the deal is a 40 percent increase from the previous one, TKO's stock price fell significantly after it was announced.

When speaking about a potential rights fee for Raw, Emanuel noted that WWE's flexible schedule gives them an advantage over sports leagues such as the NBA.

"We got a 40 percent increase for SmackDown. We have Raw, which is the number one package available. There's three rights coming available to market, three big rights: WWE Raw, UFC, NBA. We are involved in two of them. There's six buyers. Plus, I would say, WWE Network, which is up in 2026," he said.

"You cannot undervalue the WWE and UFC for the following reasons: 1) We do not have a season," Emanuel continued.

"We're 52 weeks a year and we're flexible. You want us Thursday night? You want us Tuesday? I don't have any of those scheduling issues. And that churn issue, because we're the full year, is so much different from any other sport because then people turn out. That's one of the issues with sports."

"Our fans are loyal. They stick around and they stay with and they move."

Emanuel continued to say that he does not feel an NBA rights deal will need to be finalized before one for WWE Raw can be.

"I would say to you, there's plenty of interest in Raw right now," Emanuel continued. "I know people are like 'Well, NBC is out of the mix' and that's why (the stock) went down."

On September 20, TKO Group Holdings stock was valued at $105.71 per share. When the stock closed on September 21, the day the TV rights deal for SmackDown was announced, the stock was down to $96.16 per share. As of this writing, the stock is now at $80.09 per share.

Emanuel explained why he believes the stock price has fallen in recent weeks.

"I think there's three things that happened. 1) The reason the stock is down is what (the market) thought, that Raw was the best package. I thought a 40 percent increase, which was in line with expectation, was good. 2) The PFL situation. 3) Vince, in our deal, wanted to be able to put, at any point in time, his stock."

A "put-option" allows a stock holder to sell a specified amount of stock at a predetermined price within a specified time frame.

Regarding the PFL situation Emanuel mentioned, the promotion sold a minority stake to the Saudi-backed SRJ Sports Investments last month. The value of the deal was reported by the Financial Times to be worth $100 million.

"WWE makes over $100 million from the Saudis for a five year deal for two events. It came from that group that does events in Saudi," Emanuel said.

"It was announced actually today, I don't know if you saw, we're doing an event with the UFC in Saudi. And they said there's no exclusivity, which is an indication that that was for events. We were bringing them an event. And so I think that will calm some nerves. And so now we have two big things to go out to market with."

Emanuel was asked about Endeavor working with the Saudi government after returning a $400 million investment from them in 2019 in the wake of the Jamal Khashoggi murder.

"I didn't want them, at the time, in our - we weren't public at the time - in our investor stack," Emanuel said.

"I didn't say that we would never do business. I just didn't want them in the financial stack of our investors. We distribute there now, soccer league through IMG. Because of WWE, we're in business with them for at least five years. Two events a year. Great. They just bought an event from us for the UFC. Great price we're doing. The event will be an unbelievable card."

"So I just, at the time, didn't feel comfortable for many reasons, which has been stated. But we're in business with them now."

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