John Ourand of Puck News is reporting that Peacock had a right of first refusal in their WWE deal and had the opportunity to match ESPN’s $1.6 billion offer to keep the WWE premium live events on their streaming service.
While NBCU did bid to keep the rights, it was a few hundred million less than what ESPN offered and eventually decided to pass it on and not match it.
WWE will still be airing Saturday Night’s Main Event on Peacock – and NBC – for the duration of their current Smackdown contract and Smackdown replays will also be staying on Peacock.
Peacock’s WWE PLE deal expires in March of next year and WrestleMania 42 will be the first major show on the new ESPN DTC service.
Colin Vassallo has been editor of Wrestling-Online since 1996