Below are notes from Wednesday’s WWE/ESPN Media Call ahead, which took place ahead of this Saturday’s Wrestlepalooza premium live event. The show will be the first to stream on the new ESPN app, as part of the direct-to-consumer deal worth $325 million annually.
-ESPN will have no creative control or made decisions as it relate to WWE talent as part of their five-year deal that kicks off this Saturday with Wrestlepalooza
-ESPN+ senior vice president JT Lasker and Vice President of Programming & Acquisitions Matt Kenny confirmed they don’t have or want any say on WWE creative
-Wrestlepalooza will be part of the ESPN’s multi-view option, which will give fans the ability to watch alongside other ESPN live sports programming
-They are continuing to work out agreements with other various cable/streaming providers that ESPN airs on in order to give those subscribers access to ESPN Unlimited. It was added that “by the turn of the calendar year,” the “vast majority” of their existing ESPN subscriber base will have access to the service with the ultimate goal of turning “vast majority” into “all.” As of now, deals with providers like Xfinity/Comcast and YouTube have not been finalized. However, subscribers of DirectTV, Fubo, Spectrum, Hulu Live and Verizon FIOS have been completed.
-WWE will continue to handle all production of their premium live events
-ESPN said there is a “minimum threshold” of times when WWE PLEs will simulcast on ESPN’s linear networks. This will be determined in a collaboration between ESPN and WWE that begins with the ESPN content strategy team to identify opportunities that exist within the very large amount of commitments with ESPN’s existing portfolio of rights. It was added that simulcasts could end up being more beneficial which would result in a change in how ESPN looks at doing them.
Source: F4WOnline