NBC May Fund the Construction of a Physical WWE Hall of Fame

NBC may fund the construction of a physical WWE Hall of Fame in Orlando, Fla. A new report from the New York Post states that NBCUniversal may be footing the bill for an official WWE Hall of Fame location as a means to sway the company into keeping its flagship programs, “Monday Night Raw” and “Smackdown,” on their cable networks for the foreseeable future.

Looking to retain rights to the two most popular WWE programs, which air on NBCUniversal’s USA and SyFy channels respectively, is putting together a final pitch to present to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as a “sweetener” for the deal. NBCU has an exclusive negotiating period with World Wrestling Entertainment which ends Feb. 1, and there are plenty of other sharks circling in the water.

NBCU rivals Viacom, who owns SpikeTV, and Turner Broadcasting (TBS, TNT) are all after WWE’s product. Both “Smackdown” and “Monday Night Raw” are consistently two of the highest rated programs on cable television, and the current $140 million-a-year asking price from WWE to obtain the rights for these programs is expected to have doubled this year. Claire Atkinson of the New York Post writes,

“Executives at the Stamford, Conn.-based WWE are believed to be asking for at least double the current rate, arguing that its scripted wrestling events are akin to live sports programming and that it is highly attractive to young men — and to Hispanics in particular.

NBCU does have matching rights should the exclusive window close without a deal, sources said.

WWE’s big ratings could be a boost for Turner Broadcasting’s TNT, for example.

WWE attracts high-paying, last-minute movie advertisers, autos and quick service restaurants given its large young male audience demographics, although it doesn’t command the same premium among advertisers as real sports, experts said.”

Only time will tell where these two WWE mainstays will end up, but “Monday Night Raw” would definitely not fit on say TBS, where the moniker is, “Very Funny.” Can you imagine Conan O’Brian and WWE doing cross promotion? It basically writes itself.