Update on WWE’s TV Negotiations; Where Will “Monday Night Raw” and “Smackdown” End Up?

A new edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has provided an update on WWE’s TV negotiations, with the biggest question being where will “Monday Night Raw” and “Smackdown” end up once the company’s current contract with NBCUniversal is up in September? George Barrios, the CFO of WWE, claims that a new deal will be announced at the end of April or early May.

The report claims Bloomberg.com recently listed AMC Networks Inc., Viacom Inc., Time Warner Inc., and 21st Century Fox were meeting with WWE executive in regards to negotiations for domestic television rights. AMC would be an interesting candidate for “RAW” and “Smackdown,” however with the success of “Walking Dead,” AMC is now a top five cable channel.

Viacom would air one, if not both programs on SpikeTV. Dave Meltzer claims that WWE negotiations is why the network has yet to renew TNA Wrestling’s contract, which will also expire around the same time WWE and NBCUniversal are set to part ways, Septmeber.

Time Warner would be looking to put the programs on TBS and TNT. Meltzer does bring up that the company has recently turned down an wrestling promotion, saying, “for what it’s worth, I’m aware of a wrestling proposal to that company very recently where they said that they had no interest in wrestling again. Still, that doesn’t rule out WWE.”

Fox would want to put the flagship WWE program and its sister “Smackdown” on FS 1, to help build it as a prominent station. This would also put UFC and WWE on the same network.