During the latest episode of his “Strictly Business” podcast, Eric Bischoff commented on the news of WWE Monday Night RAW leaving the USA Network and heading to Netflix starting in January 2025.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On RAW moving to Netflix in 2025: “I was just on with TMZ a few moments ago before this and I was asked about this deal and it’s impact. If you look at — you know, and I’ve talked about patterns, right? A lot on this show, you see little dots over here, little dots over there, and you start connecting those dots, and you come up with a pattern or a picture, if you will. And if you look at what Nick Khan has done over the past year or year and a half — probably a lot of these things have been in play or been developing before they were announced. But it is clear to me at least that the growth opportunities for WWE — much like the NFL, and we’ve discussed it before here on Strictly Business. The growth opportunity for WWE is international. Now, what does that mean with Netflix? I don’t know, how about 240 million subscribers in 190 different countries? That’s a big opportunity to grow your international live events, your PLEs, and just establish a broader footprint internationally beyond the UK and Europe, which has traditionally been a good market to a degree for the US.
“But by going to streaming and not having to rely on cable or terrestrial broadcast in countries — for example, in Europe, each market within that country has different broadcast standards. And it makes it — historically, I don’t know if it’s the same way today, but when I was distributing overseas, Germany had a different set of tolerances than the UK, for example. The UK had a different set than France did. And within those countries, some of the markets had restrictions because it was generally considered violent entertainment. This allows WWE, assuming that some of those challenges are still in place to just circumvent it all. And now their content is going to be as easily accessed in the UK, and in France, and in Germany. I mean, you look at the UK, $1.5 billion revenue market for Netflix. It’s the second largest, just behind the US, for Netflix. That is a massive growth opportunity, because there will probably be more people to have access to the product or it will be easier to watch the product. So it’s just all about international growth. To me, I think that was probably the reason behind this move. And it’s going to be fascinating to watch.”
On the challenges of maintaining RAW’s audience in making the shift: “I mean, who knows? I certainly don’t know, nor do I have access to the data that would suggest how many people who watch WWE currently via cable also have Netflix. I would imagine that’s a pretty big number. And I’m even more confident that there is research and data there to support a decision and would probably suggest that the actual user, viewer’s real relationship with Netflix probably won’t change that much over the table…
“[WWE is] already in the streaming business. They know so much already. And between the WWE database, the proprietary database and that of Netflix, I think you would be able to sit down with some really smart people who actually know what they’re talking about, and be able to paint a picture that would, like I said, overlay current WWE versus viewership against Netflix subscriber base. And you probably find that there’s a lot of duplication there. Short story I don’t think you’re gonna lose any ground.”
On the positives of WWE having a partner like Netflix: “Well, you know, it wasn’t that long ago that we were reading headlines about Netflix being in financial peril and cutting costs, laying people off, and slashing some of the bigger budget initiatives. And I think this is a great way for Netflix to take the next step in its evolution, and growing its audience by having a product — you know, you can go back to Ted Turner and Ted’s vision that if you have wrestling, the people will come. That is the essence of why Ted believed in wrestling as much as he did. And now I think we’re seeing it with Netflix, Netflix needs to grow their audience, too. I’ve said it before on this show 1000 times: if you’re not growing in the television industry, you are dying. And I think this is a great way for Netflix — one of the great ways for Netflix. Maybe future live sports will become more important, or live events, I should say.
“But this is a big opportunity for Netflix to inherit a worldwide loyal audience for a product that up until this point has only been available on terrestrial or cable television. Now that audience is going to move to Netflix. And I think there’ll be a lot of growth in Netflix’s platform, particularly internationally, simply because of the WWE. Keep in mind, you know, comedy doesn’t really translate well internationally. Drama? Eh, sometimes does, sometimes doesn’t. The one thing that speaks all languages is professional wrestling. And I think there’s going to be a significant amount of growth for Netflix, as well as for WWE, as a result of this.”
On whether RAW moves off Monday nights: “It could [move], as we’ve talked about on this show many times, and on 83 Weeks as well. One of the things about the professional wrestling audience, one of the benefits of having a large loyal audience is that: they are so loyal. And the audience will find you. And I’ve had shows that Jason Hervey and I created and produced, and placed on a network or cable outlet. And you couldn’t move a cable show around from night to night. You’re gonna get your ass kicked, right? Any television show, once you change nights, it’s difficult to get the audience to go with you — except for professional wrestling. The audience is so loyal, they will find you. And it’s interesting. Can Raw on Netflix avoid Monday Night Football conflict? Sure. Can they move the schedule around seasonally? Maybe. I mean, anything’s possible. But I think the fact that the wrestling audience is so loyal, gives Netflix an opportunity even more — it’s even more interesting for me because of that.”
