Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos On Acquiring WWE Raw: Sports Entertainment Is Close To Our Core, This Is A Global Deal

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos comments on Netflix coming to WWE Raw. 

On Tuesday, WWE and Netflix announced that WWE Raw would be moving to Netflix beginning in January 2025. 

Speaking on the quarterly earnings call, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos commented on the deal. 

“We are thrilled to bring WWE live programming to our members around the world. WWE Raw is sports entertainment, which is right in the sweet spot of our sports business, which is the drama of sport. Think of this as 52 weeks of live programming every week, every year. It feeds our desire to expand our live event programming. Most importantly, fans love it. For decades, WWE has grown this multi-generational fanbase that we believe we can serve and we can grow. 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,” he said. 

Sarandos said he wasn’t going to comment on the terms of the deal, but a SEC filing revealed the deal is for ten years and $5 billion total. 

Asked if spending on WWE fit in their $17 billion programming spending, Sarandos replied, “Expanding the live event programming is something we’ve talked about for a while and this has been in the works. This fits inside our $17 billion programming spending. In terms of building on it, you should think of Formula One, this is almost the inverse of Formula One, which is a very big and passionate US fanbase and a lot of room to grow outside of the US. We can build that, as we have with Formula One and other sports, through our shoulder programming like Drive to Survive, Full Swing, Break Point, and Quarterbacks. The events itself are the storytelling in WWE. This is a proven formula for us and we’re excited to jump into. This is sports entertainment, very close to our core, the deal is long-term, we’re super excited about it.”

Fans can learn more about WWE Raw moving to Netflix by clicking here.

Fans can find Nick Khan’s comments about Netflix and WWE working together on programming outside of WWE Raw by clicking here. 

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