Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal has reached a five-year deal to air WWE’s Friday Night SmackDown, taking over broadcast rights that have belonged to Fox Corp. since 2019.
USA Network will begin showing the professional wrestling league matches starting October 2024, the companies said in a statement today.
Comcast is essentially swapping its WWE rights. USA’s rights to air WWE’s Monday Night Raw and WWE NXT are set to expire in September 2024 and the network does not expect to renew them.
As part of the new deal, WWE will produce four primetime specials per year that will air on Comcast’s NBC broadcast channel.
The agreement marks the end of an era at Fox, which had been televising the weekly wrestling show as part of a broader bet that live entertainment can continue to attract large audiences.
Earlier this month, Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., which owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship, completed its takeover of WWE, putting two of the world’s most popular combat sports into one, publicly traded entity called TKO Group Holdings Inc.
