FOX CEO explains why SmackDown wasn't renewed

[Chris]

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch says his company wasn't seeing an acceptable return on investment from its TV rights deal for WWE SmackDown.

SmackDown will be returning to the USA Network beginning in October 2024 after spending five years on Fox's Friday night schedule. On today's Q1 Earnings call, Murdoch explained why Fox decided to move on from the deal.

"We were not hitting the advertising numbers due to the audience of the WWE for our return on investment to be above the levels that we would accept," Murdoch said. "But also, we didn’t attribute enough significant retransmission revenue to the WWE either."

"So, it made sense for us to move on," he continued. "They've been a great partner for many years but just quite simply, we're very disciplined and the ROI didn't meet our pretty disciplined parameters. So, we wish them luck and we've moved on from them."

TKO Group Holdings and NBC announced in September that they have agreed to a five-year domestic media rights partnership for SmackDown to return to the USA Network. The deal was reportedly for $1.4 billion, a 40% increase over the deal it had with Fox. It also includes four specials to air annually on NBC in prime time.

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/fox-ceo-explains-why-wwe-smackdown-tv-rights-deal-wasnt-renewed

 

[Deezy]

Even with strong numbers the ad rev share just isn't worth it to Networks. NBC might not be a destination for them either.