WWE is making a major move by transferring its media rights in India from Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) to Netflix India, marking a significant shift in its broadcasting strategy. This change could have ripple effects across the wrestling industry, including for AEW and TNA, as discussed by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.
“There’s a lot of small stations around the world that WWE is out of, but the only real big one is the India deal that’s left. I mean, TNT Sports in the UK, could they get TNA if they want wrestling? Yeah, you know, maybe they could. But the India deal’s the real big one. Actually, the India deal is from a financial standpoint that WWE has on Ten, that deal is the most lucrative television deal in the world other than an American deal. And WWE is exiting that deal in I believe March, but it’s in a couple months, I think it’s March.
So April, if they (SPNI) want to keep wrestling, you know, I don’t expect that they would pay anywhere near what they pay WWE, which WWE is like 30… It’s somewhere between 36 and 42 million a year. But if they want to keep wrestling, and they’re used to paying pretty significant money, that’s a pretty significant number. You know, it’d be very, very significant for like a TNA and it’s pretty significant for an AEW as well. So, there could be another thing out there.”
Dave Meltzer on the possibility of AEW or TNA getting a big money TV deal with WWE's current broadcaster in India:
"There's a lot of small stations around the world that WWE is out of, but the only real big one is the India deal that's left. I mean, TNT Sports in the UK, could… pic.twitter.com/YEF0dMWIFR
— meraWRESTLING (@meraWRESTLING) December 24, 2024
(quote courtesy of @meraWRESTLING)
