Monday Night Raw and NXT are currently “homeless” as the new $1.4 billion deal for Smackdown on USA Network meant that USA had to give up on the rights to keep the long-running Raw and NXT on their network.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote in a story today that the market for the shows is “extremely active” with both traditional linear networks and streaming services interested. The story also says that there are “unexpected players” in negotiations as well.
NBC Universal paid $1.325 billion for five years for Monday Night Raw back in 2018 which equaled $265 million per year. That was more than the $205 million annually that FOX paid to get Smackdown.
Smackdown now is worth just a bit more than what Raw was worth five years ago and if Raw follows the same percentage increase as Smackdown, it should be in the $360 million range annually.
TKO shares took a massive hit following the news of Smackdown moving to USA, down almost 14% as of this writing.