While AEW officially announced a TV deal yesterday, the company didn’t reveal any details on the nature of their contract with the WarnerMedia owned network.
Prior to the announcement, there were a lot of rumors of their contract being a ‘time buy’ deal, meaning that they’ll be paying the network to air their show in the beginning.
However, new reports from TSN and the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast claim that while they are not being paid a rights fee for their product, the upstart promotion is not paying anything either:
Confirmed from a source on the television side there are no rights fees but as we have been saying here for weeks that should not have been expected. It’s being treated like a sports property so production fees are there and a ‘great’ advertising split for AEW. Remember, it took Vince McMahon nearly 20 years of producing highly-rated television before he got a somewhat significant rights deal from Viacom at the turn of the century. The monster deal took over 35 years. TNA/Impact once had Hulk Hogan, Sting and Randy Savage and couldn’t get this kind of platform. It’s an amazing deal that those in AEW are ecstatic about. If it comes across as flat to some that’s because they were expecting rights fees due to some shoddy reporting. Right now AEW is set up like old WWE where PPV numbers and advertising will be significant to growth. WWE remains idiot-proof because of TV deal.”
As we noted before, even the XFL isn’t being paid a rights fee for their upcoming deal so as the report mentions, this new deal for All Elite Wrestling seems to be another great step for the company.
