WWE has announced that they have agreed to an exclusive US rights deal for the WWE Network to move to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service. The new five-year agreement, valued at over $1 billion, takes effect on March 18, and all current United States-based WWE Network subscribers will become Peacock Premium members automatically.
There appears to be no downside for current Network subscribers, as the price they will now pay will be reduced from $9.99 to the current Peacock Premium price of $4.99. However, it should be noted that the package contains commercials. Still, the ad-free version is also $9.99, which effectively means no price change, but fans are also getting access to other Peacock shows. Thankfully, the WWE’s Networks big draw of live pay-per-views has been confirmed to be included, with Fastlane being the first to stream on Peacock on Sunday, March 21. Non-US countries’ existing versions of the WWE Network, which differ based on location, will be unaffected by this news.
The WWE Network first launched on February 24, 2014, in the United States. As of the end of Q3 2020, it had 1.137 million paying subscribers in the United States and 412,000 internationally. Including free signups, more than 2.4 million people watched a total of 37 million hours of content in that three month period, which breaks down to almost five hours per month per fan.
