AEW & WBD exclusive TV rights negotiating window lasts into the summer

The exclusive domestic TV rights negotiating window between AEW & Warner Bros. Discovery will last into the summer as the process toward a potential new deal progresses.

Fightful first reported the news without giving a specific date, adding that any deal will likely involve a streaming element with WBD’s MAX service. A source independently confirmed that the window does end during the summer, but also could not provide the specific date or month.

While AEW head Tony Khan has never confirmed the news publicly, it’s assumed the existing rights deal is up at the end of 2024. He has previously spoken about his confidence level with a new deal regardless of where they end up, but that his hopes are to remain loyal to WBD.

When asked about the timeframe on the window during an April media call, Khan declined to answer but said it was soon.

WBD finds themselves in an interesting spot with their NBA TV negotiations as industry experts expect them to lose their portion of the rights to NBC given their massive bid for what’s considered a secondary package. Puck’s John Ourand reported there’s a question of whether WBD can match NBC’s bid, or even Amazon’s bid for another portion, given NBC has a broadcast component where WBD does not.

AEW programming has been on the WBD networks domestically since their 2019 inception with WBD-owned Bleacher Report as their lone domestic streaming provider for pay-per-views. That was until April of this year when other outlets like Triller, PPV.com and YouTube were also able to sell their PPVs, assumed to be due to multiple technical issues that occurred during March’s Revolution.

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