Tony Khan comments on WWE's TV rights negotiations and AEW's relationship with Warner Brothers Discovery.
The New York Post recently reported that WWE's exclusive TV rights negotiating window ended, and multiple parties are interested in picking up WWE's programming. Part of the report noted that Warner Brothers Discovery, AEW's main media partner in the United States, doesn’t have to stay exclusive to the company, leading to some speculation that they could be part of the field in the negotiations.
In an interview with John Pollock and Brandon Thurston for POST Wrestling, Khan was asked about the report and whether he could speak to it. He responded by highlighting the strength of AEW's relationship with Warner Brothers Discovery and stated that both AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision showed that they are committed to AEW.
“I don’t want to talk too much about the contract we have with Warner Brothers Discovery, but I definitely have some pretty favorable things in there, and given the commitment that Warner Brothers Discovery is making for AEW with Collision and Dynamite, I think it really shows that they’re fully committed to AEW. We just had AEW All Access also launch on Max, in addition to being on TBS every Wednesday night and on TNT every Friday and now every Saturday night, starting this week with the launch of Collision," Khan said.
Khan was also asked whether Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is turning out to be a wrestling fan. Khan stated he thought that was the case, as Zaslav has been a strong supporter of AEW. He described how Zaslav saying he wanted two more hours of AEW television was a huge vote of confidence for the company.
"I think so. I think so. I really believe David Zaslav has been a very, very strong supporter of AEW. I believe when he came in and said, ‘I want two more hours of AEW on Saturday nights,’ that was one of the biggest votes of confidence that you could give us, and it was certainly very favorable for us to hear that he wanted that, and then to be able to deliver in a very quick turnaround and put together what I think is going to be a great, great show with AEW Collision every Saturday night," he said.
In the same interview, Khan discussed CM Punk's return to AEW. Check out his comments here.
Khan recently discussed AEW's potential opportunities in streaming. Click here to see what he had to say.
Click here to check out the card for the June 14 episode of AEW Dynamite. Fightful will have coverage of the show as it airs.
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