Nick Khan Says WWE Is Open To Third Hour Of SmackDown, Provides Updates On Media Rights Windows
Nick Khan comments on WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown as the company continues to explore its media rights deals.
Nick Khan says WWE is open to a third hour of WWE SmackDown, and the company is considering ways to make the third hour of Raw more appealing to the adult audience.
WWE’s TV rights deals with NBCUniversal and Fox will be up in 2024, and its deal with the Peacock streaming service will expire in 2026. WWE entered into a transaction agreement with Endeavor that will see WWE merge with UFC and form a new publicly traded company once the deal is complete.
Speaking at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media & Communications Conference, (courtesy of Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics), Khan commented on the status of WWE Raw. He stated that Raw is a three-hour show, and the company doesn’t see that changing. He also noted that they are having discussions about what to do with the third hour, including potentially making it more compelling to the adult audience. Khan stated that they are also open to moving Raw to a different night.
“We can go any night of the week. We can go off Fridays for SmackDown, we can move off Mondays for Raw,” Khan said.
During the conference, Khan briefly noted that WWE is open to a third hour of SmackDown. He also provided an update on WWE’s media rights exclusive windows.
“We’re just out of the exclusive window with Fox. We’re still in the window with NBCU,” Khan said.
Additionally, Khan stated that once the media rights of Raw, SmackDown, and NXT have been figured out, the company is exploring potentially adding shows for other nights of the week. One adult-focused program was brought up as a possibility.
Khan recently stated that WWE would ideally have programming on every night of the week. Check out his comments here.
Check out Khan’s comments about SmackDown potentially moving to a different night here.
