Prediction Suggests NBCUniversal Will Eventually Buy WWE
WWE will be a part of NBCUniversal by the end of the decade if this prediction comes true
Dec 21, 2022
Amidst ongoing speculation about a potential WWE sale on Wall Street, John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal has predicted the company will eventually be bought by NBCUniversal.
WWE already have close ties to the media conglomerate as Monday Night Raw and NXT currently air on USA, while the WWE Network in the United States was dissolved into Peacock in 2021. WWE's current TV deals with USA and FOX are set to expire in 2024 but negotiations over TV rights will begin in April 2023, Ourand noted. He predicted that by the end of 2023, WWE will have inked a deal with NBCUniversal that keeps Raw and NXT on USA and moves Friday Night SmackDown away from FOX to one of their channels.
Ourand also predicted that the new TV deals will "lay the groundwork for NBCU to buy WWE outright" in 2026, when the deal with Peacock is up.
WWE being sold in the near future currently appears unlikely as disgraced former CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon remains the majority shareholder and he intends to make a comeback. McMahon retired from WWE in July 2022 amidst a sexual misconduct and hush money scandal.
