According to reports, FOX is losing big money on their WWE SmackDown deal.
According to a new report from the Wrestling Observer, a Morgan Stanley analysis concluded that the price tag for SmackDown could not be justified. FOX paid $196.7 million for SmackDown in the 2020-2021 TV season, but lost $134 million. FOX paid $208.5 million for the show in the 2021-2022 season, but lost $145 million.
The analysis concluded that there are simply not enough wrestling fans to justify the amount of money FOX spent on SmackDown, and that the number of viewers is unlikely to change over the next two years.
SmackDown wins Friday nights for FOX most weeks, making WWE more valuable to other networks; however, even when it wins the night, SmackDown has the lowest ad rates of any Friday night primetime network TV show, at $47,000 per minute.
