New Potential Buyers Said To Be Interested In WWE Media Rights

WWE held an earnings call on Thursday, where executives announced annual revenue of $1.3 billion, the highest in the company's history. With media rights deals expiring in 2024 and negotiations set to begin later in the year, WWE CEO Nick Khan answered a question regarding U.S. media rights and revealed that there are more interested buyers now than there were in the last round when WWE only had two potential buyers.

USA currently holds the rights to "Raw" and "NXT" while Fox has "SmackDown." In addition, WWE has a deal with Hulu, which owns exclusive next-day streaming rights to its programs.

WWE has been breaking records in 2023. In early January. The company announced that Wrestlemania 39 has already broken the all-time gate record for any Wrestlemania before any match was announced. The "Raw XXX" special on January 23 sold out the entire Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and delivered the highest domestic gate in the show's history.

To cap the month off, Royal Rumble at Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas was a massive success. The 2023 premium live event was not only the most-viewed Rumble but also the highest-grossing. It set an all-time gate record of over $7.7 million, which surpassed the previous record held by the 2017 Royal Rumble (which also took place at Alamodome) by 50 percent.

With Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns potentially headlining Elimination Chamber on February 18 and Cody Rhodes challenging Reigns at WrestleMania in April, WWE's hot streak is only getting hotter. It's no wonder why more buyers want to get in on the action.