MUMBAI: At an investors’ conference call following this week’s announcement that WWE had secured multi-year media rights deals with USA Network and Fox Sports, the sports entertainment network laid out timelines the next course of action in its two most important international markets – India and the UK.
WWE said that it expects to conclude the India deal for the next cycle of rights during the first half of 2019 and the UK one by end-2018.
“Management recognises the transformative nature of these agreements and expects to provide additional long-term perspective on the company’s strategic and financial goals after its content distribution plans in the U.S., U.K., and India have been determined and its plans have further evolved. Management currently expects to reach agreement in the UK by year-end 2018, and in India during the first half of 2019. Although these agreements could be secured either before or after these dates, management believes that these ranges represent the most likely periods for such communication,” WWE said in a statement.
WWE management anticipates that revenue from “key content agreements” including the new US deals, described as “Existing and New Agreements” revenue will grow to approximately $514 million in 2020 ($79 million projected from India and the UK) and $542 million in 2021 ($80 million projected from India and the UK).
Currently, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) holds the rights for WWE in this market, which came to the network following its acquisition of Ten Sports from the Zee Group. Ten Sports has held the broadcast rights to WWE for the Indian market since 2002 and the present rights cycle runs till December 2019.
And at least as far as television rights go, that will likely remain the case, a top industry executive told SportzPower. The ony other potential player was Star India and it has its plate full with the BCCI rights it retained and the IPL rights it pulled away from SPN’s grip, was the executive’s view.
Returning to the investors’ conference call, George Barrios (chief strategy and financial officer) and Michelle Wilson (chief revenue and marketing officer) fielded questions about the differences in television negotiations several years ago and now, specifically in India. Barrios was especially bullish on the Indian marketplace, where, he noted, there has been a lot of change over the last 18 months and a new pricing paradigm for mobile and broadband in the country. He pointed out that there are players beyond the traditional television partners that are coming to the table.
Ms Wilson said they are finding more and more players involved as the broadcast ecosystem and potential partners involved continues to grow. Wilson said that are opportunities with players like Amazon and Facebook aggressively looking at the sports content play.
