Could AEWs Future TV be in jeopardy?

[John McHenry]

In January 2020, it was announced that All Elite Wrestling and WarnerMedia had extended their agreed television rights deal — initially signed in May 2019 — for the company’s flagship show, “AEW Dynamite,” through 2023. The new terms also saw “AEW Rampage” added to the agreement, which is now AEW’s secondary weekly television show. The company is reportedly taking in just under $45 million per year in 2020, with an option inserted into the deal for TNT to re-sign AEW in 2024 at a significantly increased price.


With WarnerMedia and Discovery completing a merger to become Warner Bros Discovery Inc. earlier this year, AEW President Tony Khan has stressed the importance of the promotion’s next TV deal.

“I think there is still a lot of time left for the next rights deal,” Khan told the New York Post. “I do believe our future media rights will be important and frankly a very large revenue stream for AEW going forward.”


“Whenever our next media right deal, the next one does kick in, it will be historic,” Khan continued. “We expect it’s going to go very well for us based on how strong we’ve been performing.”

“Dynamite” currently airs on TBS each Wednesday night, while “Rampage” airs each Friday night on TNT. “Dynamite” has attracted over one million viewers on seven separate occasions this year, with the key demo (18-49) ranging between 0.28 and 0.44 throughout 2022. “Rampage,” however, has attracted 600,000 viewers or more on just two occasions this year, with its lowest drawing night in history airing on May 6, where 292,000 fans tuned in — partly due to the broadcast airing at the unfamiliar time of 5:30 PM ET due to TNT’s scheduling.

Khan regularly touts AEW’s viewership success on social media. On July 8, he tweeted out his thanks to the AEW fans for making “Dynamite” Wednesday’s “#1 show on cable/satellite for 3 straight weeks!” This was despite viewership slightly decreasing on the July 6 episode by 44,000 viewers, although the key demo remained at 0.36

That's well and good and I hope they get a new deal and get to stay with TNT and TBS. But with the recent Discovery Warner Merger it may not be so rosey. They've axed shows in the middle of production, at one point claiming they'd be doing no scripted content. They just shelved Batgirl a $90 million dollar film so it's not out of the realm of possibility that AEW may have to shop itself around.

If they had to go somewhere else I don't know where it would be.

 

[Comrade Khan]

Lol, no

 

[John McHenry]

Lol, no

If USA can give WWE the boot during the attitude era I see no reason it'd be out of the realm of possibility that a new merger wouldn't cause a disruption for AEW, but well thought out response.

 

[Chris]

I would say no bc they seem to be exactly what Discover is wanting. They seem to be canceling a ton of regular movies and TV and gearing towards reality shit which I think all the network execs would group wrestling with. I see people worried every HBO Max show is gonna get canceled now too and they're probably overreacting anyway lol we're just gonna have a lot more shit reality and game shows advertised during AEW if I had to guess

 

[Chris]

The only real worry if any is there was some Time Warner exec that was a big fan and pushed for them that left some time last year I wanna say?

 

[Comrade Khan]

If USA can give WWE the boot during the attitude era I see no reason it'd be out of the realm of possibility that a new merger wouldn't cause a disruption for AEW, but well thought out response.

anything is "possible" but there's 0 reason to believe this, if you actually are serious about this thread. Dynamite finished first most weeks, if not top 3. They've greenlit multiple projects, they constantly (warner discovery) tout AEWs success. They just had a cross over with Shark Week. Discovery merger execs were at Dynamite for the MJF angle. Wrestling is cheap to produce. There is ZERO reason to believe they would not be happy with AEW and would drop them. The reason I didn't give you a "well thought out response" is that this thread is not a well thought out scenario. I could not give less of a shit what a USA network did over 20 years ago, shit's irrelevant. Again, nothing is impossible but if you live in the facts based world, there is absolutely zero reason not to believe AEW is getting a big fat raise.

 

[John McHenry]

The only real worry if any is there was some Time Warner exec that was a big fan and pushed for them that left some time last year I wanna say?

That's exactly what happened to WCW. I'd lean more on the they're safe side too. But these mergers can be fickle. Honestly think most of what they're wanting to cut is kinda dead weight with a few exceptions. But reality TV and game shows are cheaper to make and if you get the right ones can bring in more money. That and reruns which at one point is all TBS was. Honestly it makes no sense to me to buy a company and then gut everything.

 

[Swamps]

Yeah, they did just scrap Batgirl, but that was woke tokenized garbage that not even the cuckiest of the cucks would have watched. I'll be in the DC thread later.

Nah, AEW isn't going anywhere. They're getting enough ratings in the key demos for advertisers. The main thing that hurts AEW is not being on a streaming service. It's really the only reason I don't watch it, unless catching some on YouTube.

 

[John McHenry]

Yeah, they did just scrap Batgirl, but that was woke tokenized garbage that not even the cuckiest of the cucks would have watched. I'll be in the DC thread later.

Nah, AEW isn't going anywhere. They're getting enough ratings in the key demos for advertisers. The main thing that hurts AEW is not being on a streaming service. It's really the only reason I don't watch it, unless catching some on YouTube.

Same. Not sure why they aren't on Any of Warner's platforms.

 

[Deezy]

This is why AEW should have more than Youtube to promote their product.

 

[Comrade Khan]

This is why AEW should have more than Youtube to promote their product.

You mean like a national tv deal?

 

[Deezy]

On the same conglomerate?

 

[Deezy]

You Honestly think it's smart to have with one parent company that's in transition?

 

[Comrade Khan]

Oh hey, #1 on cable again this week!

 

[Deezy]

LOL Cable.....how dry is that well?