A WWE Business Smackdown With Nick Khan

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt is joined by WWE president Nick Khan to discuss the WWE’s $5 billion deal with Netflix, making the streaming giant the exclusive new home to WWE’s 'Raw' starting in January 2025. Nick talks about how the deal came together, the creative vision in a post–Vince McMahon world, the Rock’s return to the ring, what this deal means for the future of sports media, where he expects the brand to be in three to five years, the looming NBA rights deal, and much more. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! [email protected] Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Nick Khan Producer: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Brian Curtis from The Ringer, and I want to tell you about the Press Box podcast.
0:06.2	The Press Box is a podcast for anybody who likes news, whether it's about sports or politics or pop
0:13.3	culture, and wants to understand how that news really gets made. We have new shows every Monday and
0:19.2	Thursday. We have long interviews with everyone from
0:21.7	John Crackauer to Joe Buck. Your social media feeds are bursting with information every day.
0:27.4	Let us help you sort it out. Join us on the press box.
0:34.0	It is Wednesday, April 3rd. One of the more interesting entertainment companies of the past few years has been the
0:40.7	WWE Pro Wrestling, home of WrestleMania, which returns this weekend in Philadelphia.
0:46.5	I can tell because Craig has been wearing his Roman Raines tank top and bandana a week.
0:51.4	There's lots going on at WWE.
0:53.2	Last summer, the company was finally sold to Endeavor,
0:56.0	the publicly traded sports and entertainment behemoth in a deal that valued WWE at $9.3 billion.
1:03.7	The unit was then combined with UFC, which Endeavor also owns, into a new company called TKO.
1:10.2	It's a majority owned by Endeavor. And just yesterday,
1:13.5	Endeavor went private via its owner Silver Lake, though TKO will continue as a publicly traded
1:19.4	company. That's on the corporate side. Within WWE, its founder and longtime in Presario,
1:24.7	Vince McMahon, was forced to step down earlier this year, second
1:28.4	time that's happened, after he was sued for sexual assault and trafficking, claims that he
1:33.5	has denied. And those claims went public just days after one of the biggest deals in
1:39.2	WWE history, a potentially $5 billion contract with Netflix to air raw beginning in 2025.
1:46.1	That's its flagship program that currently airs on USA Network.
1:49.7	That arrangement is by far Netflix's biggest investment in live sports-like content,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.