Ronda Rousey “officially signed” with WWE Sunday night at Elimination Chamber and according to a new article, it couldn’t come at a better time, business-wise. The former UFC star can be the catalyst in a big upcoming battle that can determine the financial health of WWE.
According to Wrestling Inc., Rousey’s signing could be the crux in making sure that WWE has serious negotiating power to improve upon their soon-expiring television deals. According to the article, WWE’s U.S. TV deal with NBCUniversal ends in 2019. Negotiations for a new television deal, however, can begin at any time — and with Rousey in the fold, that is quite a shiny new bargaining chip.
If Rousey is a success in WWE, she could negate whatever loss the company may sustain with the rumored departure of Brock Lesnar. Any spike in WWE merchandise, Network subscriptions and especially TV ratings can and will be used in upcoming negotiations for a new television deal for the folks in Stamford.
As of now, WWE earns close to 34 percent of their overall revenue though their current TV deal, followed up by the WWE Network amounting for 25 percent, and live event gates accounting for a shade under 20 percent. This division of revenue leads some to believe that networks might still pay a decent premium for the rights to broadcast weekly WWE television.
Live programming remains the king in terms of rating, especially when television execs largely still don’t understand the power of alternative new media options, let alone how to harness that. (Luckily, WWE is somehow ahead of the curve with seven hours of live cable television every week, PLUS an extremely popular over-the-top streaming service.) Adding someone with the star power of Rousey might provide impetus for television networks to create a bidding war for the WWE’s services, which can only drive that critical 34 percent up … or at the very least, make that percentage more valuable.
And of course, WWE has already begun talking to multiple other networks and cable companies about what the landscape might look like when their current deal is up next year.
So was the signing of Rousey great timing or a genius masterstroke by the powers that be? One may never know. What may come might be one of the bigger bidding wars for WWE content, the winner in the end might not just be WWE, but the fans as well.
