AEW Reportedly Negotiating Next-Day Streaming Deal with Max; Could Increase to 12 Pay-Per-View Events per Year
All Elite Wrestling could be coming to Max very soon. That’s according to a report from ComicBook.com, which cites Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast, who says that a deal between the wrestling promotion and Warner Bros. Discovery is currently in the works.
Nothing has been announced by AEW or WBD, and there’s still a possibility that no deal gets done, however, it could mean next-day streams of AEW shows like “Dynamite,” “Rampage” and “Collision” head to Max, as well as AEW’s vast archive of past matches and other events. “Collision” and “Rampage” currently air on the WBD-owned cable channel TNT, while “Dynamite” airs on TBS.
The report also mentions that AEW could be expanding the number of pay-per-view events it offers every year from six to 12. That would put it on par with the amount of PPVs that WWE offers, though there are no details available yet as to whether they’ll be shown live at no extra cost to Max subscribers the way WWE provides access to its PPV events for Peacock users.
“We’ve got a great library all together with everything I own,” AEW President Tony Khan told Pro Wrestling Insider in August. “It’s thousands of hours of great wrestling and the AEW catalog has grown so much considering it was stuff we bootstrapped and started to think from scratch four years ago. And I believe the streaming service will happen as to where it is and what platform it is that something that I believe largely will be influenced by Warner Bros.”
AEW had been discussing the creation of its own streaming platform in February, but those plans would likely have to be reevaluated if a streaming deal with Max is reached. There just wouldn’t be enough exclusive titles to spread between both services, and the Max deal would mean AEW doesn’t have to spend the amount of money it would take to create a brand-new streaming platform from scratch.
The wrestling promotion has also discussed the creation of a free ad-supported TV (FAST) channel which could house some of its archival content and old episodes of “Rampage,” etc. That channel could go hand-in-hand with the Max deal, allowing AEW to collect ad revenues from its channel and steer them toward more paywalled content on Max.
WBD has a high-quality array of sports rights, including NBA and NHL regular season games and the MLB playoffs. The company is reportedly looking to add some of those events to Max as well, and could offer live sporting events free to users initially. AEW programming would make a popular addition to that sports lineup if WBD can close a deal to add that content on Max.
Max
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