ESPN and WWE, well TKO, have reached an agreement to bring all of WWE’s Premium Live Events (formerly known as PPVs) to a new Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) service. The problem comes in at the price of accessing this new service. It is reportedly $29.99 a month but there is more than just WWE PLEs planned for it.
Fans Have Options, Somewhat
If you are still rocking cable television with the ESPN package, then you are in luck. Select PLEs will be available to you, not all and I currently do not know exactly which ones (I can almost guarantee Wrestlemania is not included).
Quoted from ESPN Press Room, Mark Shapiro, President and Chief Operating Officer, TKO: “We are proud to reinforce the ‘E’ in ESPN at such an exciting juncture in its direct-to-consumer journey. WWE Premium Live Events are renowned for exactly the type of rich storytelling, incredible feats of athleticism and can’t-miss, cultural tentpole experiences that have become synonymous with ESPN. Through our UFC relationship, we have experienced firsthand how transformational an ESPN presence can be, and we know this will be an exceptional partnership at a time of great innovation for both companies.”
Depending on how big a fan of WWE content you are this linear broadcasting option may be enough.
Value For Major Sports Fans
If you are a huge fan of sports in general then you probably are already fine with signing up for various apps and services to watch the content you want to see. This new DTC service will probably fit right in for you.
If you are just a fan of WWE there still may be plenty of value here. Traditionally PPV events were much higher than $30 a month. According to PPV.com AEW PPVs cost about $50 each.
This does cause fans of both promotions to spend almost $100 a month for the PPVs, not counting access to the weekly programming.
Where do you fall in this? Let me know in the comments.