In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog, TNA President Dixie Carter admitted that the television deal with Destination America wraps up at the end of the year but there are discussions going to see where 2016 will lead them.
“The biggest challenge for us is building a brand in the U.S.,” said Carter. “That’s where we need to grow. We’re contracted to Destination America through the end of the year, and we are in discussions going on for 2016.” The article then states at the end that there’s no TV deal for TNA past February 2016.
TNA announced the deal with Discovery Communications’ Destination America back in November 2014 and started airing on the network on January 7, 2015. With Carter saying that their deal runs through the end of 2015 means that Destination America exercised their right to pull the plug on the show after one year.
In mid-May there were already rumors that the company was ready to axe TNA from its schedule after a memo from a Destination America executive was sent to the network’s staff. “Destination America is not renewing TNA Wrestling next year. While the ratings were strong, the audience was not large enough to justify the program investment. We plan to honor the current contract and continue to air original episodes of TNA Wrestling on Friday nights through the end of the third quarter 2015,” the memo read.
Just like Spike TV did for TNA when they allowed them to stay on the air till the end of December even though the deal ran out at the end of September, Destination America seems to have done the same, giving TNA a three month lifeline on their network as TNA scrambles to find a television partner or convinces Destination America to stick with them.
