Triple H and WWE have inked a 5-year deal with ESPN.
WWE
WWE inked a fiver-year, $1.6 billion deal with ESPN to exclusively air Premium Live Events. The deal, valued at around $325 million per year, will replace WWE’s current deal with Peacock beginning in 2026. This will be 1.6x WWE’s billion-dollar deal (at $200 million per year) with Peacock signed in 2021.
The deal will see WWE air PLEs on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service, with some PLEs airing on ESPN’s linear TV channels. ESPN also has rights to create original WWE content. There is no word yet on where WWE’s content library will air as ESPN’s deal is to only broadcast WWE PLEs on its new ESPN Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) service.
WWE’s 5-Year Deal With ESPN | What To Know
- ESPN will exclusively air WWE Premium Live Events on its new direct-to-consumer service ESPN DTC. The service will cost $29.99 per month. The enhanced app, which arrives August 21, 2025, will include content from college football, NFL, US Open tennis and a multitude of sports.
- The unlimited plan of $29.99 gives fans access to all of ESPN’s linear networks. Bundling opportunities will be available with Disney+ and Hulu for $29.99 for the first 12 months. All current ESPN cable subscribers will automatically get the ESPN DTC product through authentication.
- WWE’s deal with ESPN DTC begins in 2026.
“WWE has an immense, devoted and passionate fan base that we’re excited to super-serve on our new ESPN DTC platform,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said. “This agreement, which features the most significant WWE events of the year, bolsters our unprecedented content portfolio and helps drive our streaming future.”
“It’s incredible. What we consider the worldwide leader of sports entertainment to be with the worldwide leader of sports and entertainment (ESPN), there’s nothing bigger,” said WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H. There’s no bigger opportunity for us than this right now. And on top of that, to be in the Disney family so to speak, we’re thrilled and can’t wait to get rolling.”
“Nick [Khan] and I have been thinking about it for a long time. It is the right home for it, it’s something we’ve been trying to work through for a long time.”
WWE Reaching A New Global Audience Through Diverse Content Portfolio
In a 2021 interview, Nick Khan outlined WWE’s strategy of omnipresence to reach as many viewers in as many demographics as possible. WWE’s plan is to have a presence on cable TV, network TV and streaming. Through deals with USA Network (cable), the CW (network), Netflix (streaming) and now ESPN (streaming/cable), WWE remains accessible to a myriad of demographics and age groups.
“I’m not convinced that there are a group of 15-year-olds watching linear television who just don’t happen to be watching us,” said Khan about reaching new fans at a young age.
“[Young wrestling fans] are finding our content elsewhere, and we have to get to them before they’re even 15 to make sure we have a chance to win over new fans. So when the other fans start to phase out and get older, we always have a new population coming in.”
WWE NXT on the CW has sparked a 40% year-over-year increase in ratings for the network, which plans to create more WWE programming.
WWE’s partnership with ESPN will kick off yet another content era for WWE—its second in two years after debuting on Netflix on January 6. Similar to ESPN’s plans to air live wrestling in addition to original programming, Netflix recently premiered WWE Unreal. The behind-the-scenes docu-series cracked the Netflix’s Top 10 list worldwide with 2.3 million viewers for its debut. Netflix executives have been glowing with praise about their partnership with WWE.
“It’s everything we could have hoped for and more,” Vice President of Netflix Sports Gabe Spitzer told Variety. “We knew going in that we’re not going to change WWE. It was more, how can we add to it in small ways, and that’s what we’ve seen so far.”
WWE’s deal with ESPN, while more expensive for some viewers, will continue its global expansion as an improvement from its deal with Peacock. Peacock has 36 million subscribers per a 2025 report, while ESPN exists in 72 million homes.