WWE Chief Executive Officer Nick Khan has said that the company is open to reverting to pay-per-views if whoever pays for their media rights wanted that and are willing to pay for it. Khan made the comments on The Marchand & Ourand Sports Media Podcast.
The deal would be similar to what the UFC does with ESPN+. ESPN pays the UFC millions of dollars every year for their content but also charges customers $79.99 for each pay-per-view. Besides, the pay-per-views are exclusively on ESPN+, so customers would need to pay the subscription for ESPN+ on top of that.
That would mean if Peacock’s parent company NBCUniversal decided to renew their WWE Network deal when it expires in a few years, they can charge extra for all the monthly events, now referred to by WWE as premium live events.
WWE did away with pay-per-views in 2014 after the introduction of the WWE Network, with the shows being included in the $9.99 monthly price. Once the Network moved to Peacock, the price decreased to $4.99 a month.