If TKO head Mark Shapiro has his way, WWE will remain on NBCUniversal for as long as the broadcaster wants them to.
As part of the media rounds ahead of Saturday’s WWE kickoff on the ESPN networks/streaming platform, Shapiro spoke to Puck’s John Ourand on his Varsity podcast.
In talking about the UFC media rights deal, Shapiro was discussing the benefits of having various TV partners. WWE then came up and in talking about ESPN and Netflix, he brought up Comcast (aka NBC Universal and said, “We’re not going to leave (NBCUniversal) as long as they want to be with us.”
The relationship between WWE and NBCU notably changed last month, bringing WWE PLEs to ESPN seven months earlier than contractually expected. Archive content will remain on the Peacock platform through the end of 2025 while NXT PLEs will remain through March 2026 as of now.
The changes also saw an adjustment to their Saturday Night’s Main Event broadcasts with the quarterly specials now airing exclusively on Peacock with SmackDown episodes available on the streamer 30 days after they initially air on USA.
During August’s Clash in Paris PLE, Michael Cole thanked Peacock to which NBC Sports president Rick Cordella replied with his own thanks to the WWE team for taking “a chance” with Peacock.
Following the official expiration of their initial Peacock deal this March, WWE’s lone remaining deal with NBCU expires in October 2029. SmackDown did initially begin airing on USA several weeks earlier than expected (September 13) and it’s unclear if the contract date changed with that move.
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