WWE and ESPN have landed a new five-year deal for ESPN’s soon-to-launch streaming outlet. Starting in 2026, it will become the exclusive U.S. home of all of the WWE’s top live events, including WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series, when the NBCUniversal’s Peacock deal ends. ESPN will also have the option to stream pre- and post-shows tied to the events—ten in all. The events may also be simulcast on certain linear ESPN venues.
WWE events are “an extremely popular form of entertainment and have stood the test of time,” says Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN. ESPN always wants to expand its audience, he says, “and WWE is going to help us get younger. It’s going to help us get more diverse. It’s going to help us bring in more females.” Pitaro says he expects both Disney and ESPN to create new programming tied to WWE.
The new ESPN streamer will debut on August 21st, which is “timed for a marquee stretch of live sports programming across ESPN platforms” and ahead of the next NFL and college football seasons, as well as the U.S. Open tennis, international soccer, women’s college soccer, volleyball, field hockey, the WNBA playoffs, PLL playoffs, and NBA and NHL seasons, as well as UFC and WWE events “just around the corner.”
ESPN’s direct-to-consumer unlimited plan will cost $29.99/month, giving access to all of ESPN’s linear networks—ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, and ESPN Deportes—in addition to ESPN on ABC, ESPN+, ESPN3, SECN, and ACCNX, covering 47,000 live events each year; on-demand replays, studio shows, original programming, and more. Bundling options for the ESPN Unlimited plan with Disney+ and Hulu include a special offer at launch for $29.99/month for the first 12 months. Sports fans can also opt for ESPN+, priced at $11.99/month, which includes over 32,000 live events annually.
All subscribers to ESPN’s unlimited plan—either through ESPN DTC or a traditional pay-TV provider—will have live and on-demand access to all of ESPN’s leading studio shows—including SportsCenter, Get Up, First Take, NFL Live, The Pat McAfee Show, Pardon the Interruption, College GameDay, NBA Today, Inside the NBA, The Rich Eisen Show, and more—plus a robust, on-demand library featuring 30 for 30 films, ESPN Originals, replays, and more.
The goal is “finding a new and expanded audience,” says Mark Shapiro, president and chief operating officer of TKO. Getting on board with the new ESPN service at an early stage “is really an opportunity we didn’t want to pass up.” WWE and ESPN have also tested alliances in the past. During the pandemic when live events were cancelled, ESPN held rights to show classic WrestleMania PPVs.
According to Nick Kahn, WWE’s president, “The conversations were quick. They were robust in spirit,” he says. “We think our entire audience will travel and grow substantially.” This includes WrestleMania expanding to two days. The chance to coordinate WWE’s signature events across Netflix and ESPN was attractive, says Shapiro. “These are two of the most predominant brands in all of sports and entertainment, two supernovas, if you will,” he says.
The WWE will continue to air Saturday Night’s Main Event and Friday Night SmackDown on NBCU and Peacock, respectively, while Netflix will still stream Monday Night Raw globally and SmackDown and the live events outside the U.S.
“We take a ton of pride in how we’ve helped to grow the UFC, and we’re always proud to partner with TKO in some capacity. And so, I anticipate ongoing discussions with Mark and team, about meaningful ways that we can work together,” says Pitaro. Whether those business relationships are tied to events, highlights or other content remains to be seen, but Shapiro says a partnership between UFC and ESPN “is a priority for us” with “a track record that has just been too strong.”
According to CNBC, ESPN is paying an average of $325 million per year on a five-year deal for WWE PLEs beginning in 2026. Peacock had previously paid $180 million per year over a five-year deal.
Nick Khan is confident WWE’s audience will be subscribers of ESPN to continue watching their PLEs. “I think we’ve demonstrated to Peacock, our subs will follow, they certainly all followed from the WWE Network, and that expanded that subscribership extensively with Peacock. And there’s obviously other product at Peacock to watch, which our fans who subscribe primarily for us were able to sample. Same will be the case with ESPN.”
NXT PLEs are excluded in the ESPN deal and will be up for bidding.
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