Netflix’s venture into livestreaming visits State Farm Arena with WWE’s ‘Raw’

Netflix now holds the exclusive rights to stream “Raw” in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Latin America, among other territories, ending a 31-year streak of “Raw” airing on traditional linear television. The streamer also holds the rights to Raw’s back catalog going back to 1993 and will broadcast the WWE’s other programs and specials — including “SmackDown” and “NXT” — outside of the U.S.

The deal, first announced in January 2024, is promising to reinvigorate the brand and introduce it to new audiences as cable subscriptions remain in a free fall.

Netflix is paying a hefty price to stream episodes of “Raw” — reportedly double what NBCUniversal was paying per year, which Variety estimated was around $250 million to $260 million. The Netflix agreement is valued at more than $5 billion over the next 10 years, according to a regulatory filing filed by TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of WWE. The streamer has the option to extend for an additional 10 years and another to opt out after the initial five years.

Jacqueline Corbelli, the CEO of television advertising company BrightLine, calls the deal a win-win, and said it sets the pace for what’s to come as streamers continue to push into live television.

“That’s a lot of money,” Corbelli said. “It gives you a sense of just how high the stakes are for streamers now to obtain sports broadcasts as part of their strategy.”

The WWE deal is one of several investments Netflix recently made in live television. After years of growing its subscriber base with mostly scripted content, Netflix is now turning to live events to stand out in the increasingly crowded streaming market and to boost revenue. It’s a page from the traditional TV playbook, which Netflix has played a hand in disrupting over the past decade. By holding the rights to “Raw,” or any other entertainment brand, for that matter, Netflix has something its competitors do not.

The streamer showed two NFL games on Christmas Day, each of which averaged more than 30 million global viewers, according to Netflix’s data. One month before, it streamed a boxing match headlined by Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, which drew 38 million viewers in the U.S., despite having buffering issues.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Netflix has also livestreamed an hourlong Chris Rock comedy special, the Tom Brady roast and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, among other events.

The debut “Raw” episode on Netflix averaged about 2.6 million households in the U.S., according to Netflix. This was higher than any other “Raw” broadcast in the past five years, though USA Network and Netflix have different methods of measuring viewers. From the first four episodes, it’s unclear if the deal will do much more than retain Netflix’s subscriber base, Corbelli said.

“Raw,” which is responsible for catapulting the careers of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Cena and several other megastars, launched on USA Network in 1993. Excluding a five-year stint on Spike TV in the early 2000s, episodes of “Raw” aired on USA Network for more than two decades.

“Raw” and the larger WWE franchise as a whole have attracted a fervent fan base, many of which have stuck around for decades and know the business of the WWE just as well as the wrestlers themselves.

Gabriel Matos, a graduate student at the Savannah College of Art and Design attending the State Farm Arena event, said the Netflix deal was the only way the WWE could get their content to the mass public in today’s era of streaming. He thinks this is a stepping stone to the WWE becoming even more ingrained in pop culture.

“Being here today, we’re witnessing history,” Matos said after the event.