The biggest news story of AEW's year has finally been announced, as the company recently signed a new media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery that will keep shows like "AEW Dynamite" and "AEW Collision" on TBS and TNT until at least 2028, while also simulcasting them on the MAX streaming service. AEW's new deal was originally valued at more than $150 Million per year, but that figure has since risen to upwards of $185 Million per year, with an additional fourth year option that can be exercised ifWBD choose to that will see that figure go up even more. With so many facts and figures being thrown around over the past few days, Wrestlenomics have broken down one key element of the finances; how does WBD value AEW compared to how WWE's broadcasters value them?
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On a per-viewer-hour basis, WBD values AEW's top two shows, "Dynamite" and "Collision," closer to a show like "WWE Raw" than "WWE NXT," despite "NXT" being a similar ratings draw to "Dynamite" on a weekly basis. Wrestlenomics broke it down by determining the value of the viewer by dividing the annual average value of the media deal by viewership, and the number of content hours produced, with the previous 365 days (October 2023 to October 2024) being the case study.
It turns out the amount of money per-viewer-hour that each broadcaster is willing to pay WWE and AEW is a lot more even when "Raw" is compared to "Dynamite" and "Collision," with "Raw" being paid an average of $1.56 per hour watched based on average weekly viewership, and $3.67 in the key 18-49 demographic, while AEW earns roughly $1.45 for the weekly viewership, and $3.41 for the demographic. Compare this to "NXT," which averages $0.35 for weekly viewership, and $0.91 for the demographic.
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The facts and figures Wrestlenomics produced were using the value of AEW's deal as $168 Million per year. as that was the median between the figure originally reported ($150 Million) and the figure that was later confirmed ($185Million). However, Wrestlenomics does believe there is something to that extra $35 Million.
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They believe that the extra $35 Million difference is not cash. Instead, it's possibly due to the report that WBD has an active minority equity stake in AEW, meaning that they own a portion of the company. It could also attribute to "other in-kind values" WBD will give to AEW across the next three years, which has, once again, not officially been confirmed by either party, but has been heavily reported on since the deal was announced. Wrestlenomics noted that equity will always have a speculative value, such as share prices in public companies that can change in the blink of an eye. What this means is that some reports might be overestimating the different values in WBD's equity in AEW, which could lose, or even gain value over time depending on different circumstances.
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All this number-crunching does not take into account the financial situation surrounding AEW's pay-per-view distribution on MAX, which will commence later on in 2025. Nor does it factor in the potential deal surrounding "AEW Shockwave," which carries its own financial value. "Shockwave" is currently being shopped around as a one-hour show for broadcast television, as WBD holds the exclusive cable rights to AEW, meaning that if the spiritual successor to "AEW Rampage" was to find a home, it would have to be on a nationally broadcast channel like FOX, ABC, or CBS to name a few.
