The WWE President speaks about Raw moving to Netflix.
Starting in January 2025, WWE Raw is going to be airing exclusively on Netflix. Coming out of the announcement, company President Nick Khan guest appeared on The Pat McAfee Show.
To kick off the conversation, Khan was asked why was Netflix the right move. He went on to add that the deal came together in a couple of months.
Once the SmackDown deal closed which will shift SmackDown over from FOX to USA starting this October 1, we hyper focused on Raw. It was a robust marketplace, we had a number of meetings, there was a lot of interests, there were a number of offers and at the end of the day, to be the first movers with Netflix live on a consistent basis. So yes, I saw the Chris Rock special too and the reality show aftershow and they’re doing the golf Pro-Am which is all great programming. But 52 weeks a year, we’re turnkey as you (Pat McAfee) know, you’ve lived it with us. The fact that they can come to us and say, ‘Yeah, we strike a deal and you guys can do all the rest’ is something that they liked and certainly something that we thought was in our direct wheelhouse. It came together in a matter of a couple of months and we think it’s a great deal.
Per a company filing, the 10-year deal between Netflix and WWE is valued at more than $5 billion.
To close out the interview, Khan was asked if Raw will remain on Mondays in 2025. He stated that as of right now, that is the case but he believes whether it stays or switches nights, it’ll work.
At this moment in time, it remains Monday Night Raw. But keep in mind, we got 10-and-a-half months until this deal’s up and running. So we’re looking at what you’re looking at and everyone else is looking at. The proliferation of gambling with Monday Night Raw football, you have an enhanced Disney package, better games, all credit to Jimmy Pitaro… and all the other good folks at Disney. You got the Manningcast, you got this year’s on ABC and ESPN Monday Night Football. You got last season, the playoff game that they got I believe was Tom Brady at the Cowboys or the season before whatever that was. You also have the College National Championship. Football and hoops on Mondays. So you got a lot of Mondays where there’s stiff competition. That said, even against Alabama/Michigan and the Washington/Texas game a few weeks ago, Monday Night Raw did a .6 in the 18-49 demo which is a massive rating against big competition. If we stay on Mondays, it’ll work. If we move it to a different day, we think it’ll work too.
Head over to the POST Wrestling YouTube channel for a breaking news edition of Pollock x Thurston to get a breakdown of the Netflix-WWE deal.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Pat McAfee Show with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
