Netflix co-Chief Executive Officer Ted Sarandos talks WWE deal

Speaking during the Q4 2023 earnings call, Netflix co-Chief Executive Officer Ted Sarandos said that the deal struck with WWE for Monday Night Raw and other shows internationally is “right in the sweet spot” for their sports business.

“Think of this as 52 weeks of live programming every year. It feeds our desire to expand our event programming,” Sarandos said, adding that they are thrilled to bring WWE programming to their subscribers all around the world.

“For decades, WWE has grown this multi-generational fanbase that we believe we can serve and we can grow,” he added. “We believe WWE has been historically under distributed outside of North America, and this is a global deal. We can help them, and they can help us build that fandom around the world. This should also add some fuel to our new and growing ad business.”

Netflix will also produce WWE documentaries and other shows similar to what they did with Formula 1, tennis, and other sports in the past, with Sarandos saying that they’re excited to jump into it.

“This is sports entertainment, very close to our core, the deal is long-term, we’re super excited about it,” he said.

Netflix is paying WWE $5 billion over 10 years for the deal.

Colin Vassallo has been editor of Wrestling-Online since 1996