ESPN Chairman says they would be interested in bidding for WWE video library

ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro hinted that the company would be interested in bidding for the WWE video library if WWE decides to put those rights up for sale in the future.

Speaking on The Ringer’s Press Box podcast, Pitaro said they’re always interested in content of that quality and while he confirmed they will have archival rights for the events which will air on ESPN during the duration of the deal, they would be up to bid for the library.

WWE and ESPN announced a five-year deal worth $1.6 billion which will see all WWE premium live events from WrestleMania 42 onward to air on ESPN’s new streaming service. Some of those PLEs will also air on ESPN linear television.

Pitaro also added that WWE is willing to work with ESPN to fill certain programming gaps if required.

“So no commitments and they’re producing these events, but I would expect that if I were to call Nick Khan and say, ‘Hey, can you work with me? We have a particular gap here in our schedule.’ I expect he will,” the Chairman said.

Just like every service, there is churn and Pitaro said that he hopes the monthly WWE PLEs will minimize that churn.

“When we first started to look at these premium events, we immediately thought of the calendar and the fact that these events could help us plug in some holes, some gaps that we might have in our schedule and thereby minimize churn,” Pitaro said.