WWE currently rumored to be considering the idea of splitting up their streaming rights for RAW and Smackdown in order to squeeze more money out of their new contracts.
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Originally Posted by Post Wrestling
There is a discussion that the WWE could have another card to play regarding their distribution rights. BTIG analyst Brandon Ross recently wrote that he believes the company might be able to split their rights and strike a separate deal for the streaming rights to Raw and SmackDown. This follows the reports that NBC Universal is expected to renew Raw with a significant upgrade in price with The Hollywood Reporter citing up to three times the current value. In addition, Fox has agreed to spend $205 million per year for the rights to SmackDown when the NBC Universal agreement expires at the end of September 2019.
In the current deal with NBC Universal, the streaming rights for Raw and SmackDown went to Hulu, which NBC Universal has a stake in and after 30-days the shows are added to the WWE Network ...
The BTIG report estimates that Raw itself could fetch $25 million per year in streaming rights and bring the WWE’s overall domestic rights total to $500 million per year. To put that figure into perspective, the entire WWE generated $800 million in revenue in 2017.
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Idea would be to copy what UFC was able to do for the deal they signed with ESPN.