July 31, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Status of rights fees, WWE Battleground review, more
From a business standpoint, the most important long-term news story for both WWE and UFC is the status of rights fees for television programming when the current contracts expire.
There has been tremendous speculation, with the decline in viewership of cable television, decreased ratings for both groups and the sports networks having long-term big contracts with the major players like the NFL, NBA, Baseball, Hockey, the major college sports and NASCAR, and signs that revenue growth for television is slowing down.
Over the past week, there has become speculation of new players competing with television, such as Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and Verizon. Thus far, none of those companies have become true competition in bidding against television, but there was talk this past week of Facebook perhaps being a player who could lead to a bidding war that would increase the value of the WWE U.S. contract. Times are changing and nobody really knows the landscape.
Current subscribers click here to continue reading.
Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.