SEScoops

Tag: Business

  • WWE Partners With Front Office Sports for Business Content

    WWE Partners With Front Office Sports for Business Content

    WWE and Front Office Sports have announced a new content partnership that will bring fans behind-the-scenes coverage of major WWE events from a business perspective.

    The two organizations will collaborate on storytelling projects surrounding marquee Premium Live Events and international expansion efforts. FOS will distribute the content across its website and social channels, with coverage kicking off at WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on April 18–19.

    “Front Office Sports is known for its innovative approach to storytelling, and we look forward to partnering to produce new and dynamic content that underscores the evolving business of WWE,” said Alex Varga, Co-Head of Revenue at WWE.

    Front Office Sports CEO Adam White added that the sports media landscape is increasingly driven by off-the-field happenings, and the deal will bring fans closer to their favorite athletes and entertainers in a unique way.

    WWE joins the NFL and the National Women’s Soccer League as the latest sports entities to form a content partnership with FOS. No financial terms were disclosed.

  • WWE Surpasses UFC in Annual Revenue for First Time Under TKO

    WWE has officially surpassed UFC in annual revenue for the first time since the two properties merged under TKO Group Holdings, according to the company\’s fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings report released today.

    WWE generated $1.709 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025, a 22% increase year-over-year. UFC posted $1.502 billion for the same period — putting WWE $207 million ahead of its sister promotion. It marks a milestone that would have seemed unlikely when TKO was first formed in 2023.

    WWE Revenue by Category

    The full-year breakdown tells the story of a company firing on every cylinder. Media rights, production and content crossed the billion-dollar threshold for the first time, reaching $1.000 billion — up $135.1 million (+18%) year-over-year. That growth was driven primarily by WWE\’s landmark deals with Netflix (Monday Night Raw) and ESPN, which came into effect in 2025 and represent a major step up in rights fees from the prior USA Network arrangement.

    Live events and hospitality — the category that most closely reflects Premium Live Event and house show performance, including ticket revenue and site fees — reached $412.8 million, up $74.3 million (+22%) from 2024. That\’s the largest revenue category outside of media rights, and its growth reflects both higher ticket prices and WWE\’s expanding international PLE calendar.

    Partnerships and marketing was the fastest-growing segment, jumping $76.6 million to $159.6 million — nearly doubling year-over-year. New sponsorship deals and renewals at higher rates drove the increase, a sign that advertisers and brand partners are placing significant value on WWE\’s expanded reach through Netflix and ESPN.

    Consumer products licensing and other came in at $136.4 million, up $25.3 million (+23%), rounding out a year of broad-based revenue growth across every line item.

    WWE Profitability: Now Outpacing UFC

    WWE\’s Adjusted EBITDA — a key measure of operating profitability — climbed 32% to $896.5 million in 2025, up from $681.1 million. The Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 52%, up from 49% the prior year.

    In a remarkable reversal, WWE now out-earns UFC in absolute profit dollars. UFC\’s Adjusted EBITDA was $851.0 million — still elite at a 57% margin, but $45 million behind WWE\’s dollar figure. UFC had long been considered the financially dominant half of TKO\’s portfolio.

    Q4 2025: The PLE Timing Factor

    WWE\’s Q4 results highlight how much the international PLE calendar can swing quarterly numbers. Live events and hospitality revenue fell $24.8 million in Q4 compared to the prior year, which TKO attributed directly to holding one fewer international Premium Live Event in the quarter. That\’s a meaningful data point: a single international PLE is worth in the range of $20–25 million to WWE\’s top line.

    Despite that headwind, WWE\’s Q4 revenue still grew 21% overall, powered by the $64.9 million surge in media rights revenue — the Netflix and ESPN deals running at full strength for the first time. Partnerships and marketing added another $13 million in Q4, and consumer products grew $8.2 million.

    WWE\’s Q4 Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 46%, up from 38% in Q4 2024 — a 8-point improvement in a single quarter, even while absorbing higher talent costs.

    TKO\’s Overall 2025 Performance and 2026 Outlook

    On a consolidated basis, TKO posted full-year revenue of $4.735 billion and Adjusted EBITDA of $1.585 billion — a 47% EBITDA increase year-over-year. Free cash flow reached $1.159 billion. The company returned more than $1.3 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends during the year.

    For 2026, TKO is targeting $5.675–$5.775 billion in revenue and $2.240–$2.290 billion in Adjusted EBITDA — roughly 20% top-line growth. The company also announced plans to launch up to $1 billion in share repurchases beginning in March 2026.

    \”2025 was a milestone year, underscoring the durability of our premium IP through record-setting live events and transformational global partnerships,\” said TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro. With WWE\’s media rights agreements fully in effect and the international PLE slate continuing to grow, the financial trajectory heading into WrestleMania season looks as strong as it ever has.

  • Tony Khan Confident in Warner Bros. Discovery Partnership Amid Merger Uncertainty

    AEW President Tony Khan has dismissed concerns about his company\’s future amid Warner Bros. Discovery\’s ongoing merger drama, declaring the promotion has \”a lot of certainty\” despite industry turbulence surrounding its broadcast partner.

    Speaking with Scott Fishman for TV Insider ahead of of AEW Worlds End, Khan addressed the elephant in the room as WBD faces competing acquisition bids from Netflix and Paramount Skydance. While the media giant\’s board recently rejected Paramount\’s hostile $108 billion takeover offer in favor of Netflix\’s $82.7 billion deal, Khan remained bullish on AEW\’s position.

    \”2025 is the most exciting year yet for AEW and our partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery was reimagined this year and will continue for years to come,\” Khan said. \”We\’re locked in with TNT, TBS, and HBO Max for over two more years.\”

    Khan pointed to WBD CEO David Zaslav as AEW\’s steadfast supporter, revealing he recently received a holiday gift from the executive that he plans to utilize in upcoming programming. The AEW boss emphasized Zaslav\’s pivotal role in launching AEW Collision and securing the promotion\’s streaming presence on HBO Max.

    \”The person who is making the calls and has always been a believer in AEW continues to be David Zaslav,\” Khan stated, praising the CEO as one of Hollywood\’s most successful studio heads.

    AEW secured a multi-year extension with WBD in October 2024, valued at approximately $185 million annually. The deal brought Dynamite and Collision to Max for the first time, with pay-per-views following in 2025. Khan noted that Dynamite has become the longest-running primetime wrestling show in TBS and TNT history, continuing Turner\’s wrestling tradition dating back to 1971.

    Despite Wall Street uncertainty surrounding WBD\’s ownership future—with Netflix\’s deal not expected to close until Q3 2026 following the company\’s planned split—Khan expressed unwavering confidence in AEW\’s broadcast future.

    \”David Zaslav is putting out hit after hit,\” Khan said. \”I\’m very proud he has made the big investment in AEW. There is a lot of excitement around the future of Warner Bros.\”

    AEW Worlds End takes place December 28 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, capping what Sports Illustrated named the \”Promotion of the Year\” for 2025.

  • Paramount Launches $108 Billion Counter-Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

    Just days after Netflix appeared to secure a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount has thrown a wrench into those plans with a hostile takeover attempt.

    Paramount, now led by David Ellison following the Skydance merger, announced Monday it has launched an all-cash tender offer of $30 per share for WBD — totaling $108.4 billion in enterprise value. The offer represents a 139% premium over WBD’s stock price before acquisition talks began.

    Not So Fast, Netflix

    The move directly challenges Netflix’s announced acquisition, which valued WBD at $82.7 billion through a mix of cash and stock.

    “WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company,” Ellison stated in the press release. “We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process.”

    Paramount’s offer provides $18 billion more in cash than the Netflix deal and expires January 8, 2026.

    As previously reported, Netflix faced significant regulatory hurdles to close its acquisition. Paramount is now positioning its bid as the faster path to completion, arguing that Netflix’s deal would create an anticompetitive streaming monopoly with 43% of global SVOD subscribers.

    Warner Bros. Discovery owns TNT and TBS, the broadcast homes of AEW programming. The outcome of this bidding war will determine AEW’s future television partnership.

  • Netflix Wins Bidding Battle For Exclusive Negotiations With Warner Bros., But Major Hurdles Remain

    Netflix emerged as the winner over Paramount and Comcast in the bidding contest for Warner Bros. Discovery. The streamer is now in an exclusive negotiation period with the storied studio.

    After a two-week bidding war, Netflix emerged as the winner on Thursday over Paramount and Comcast for Warner Bros. Discovery, the home of the HBO Max streaming service and All-Elite Wrestling, while concerns grow over media consolidation and monopolization.

    According to several reports, Netflix’s final offer hit the $30 per share target WBD CEO David Zaslav was wanting in a buyer.

    Winning the bid, Netflix will enter an exclusive negotiating period with WBD to iron out details of a sale, but that process is far from over.

    Paramount sent two letters over the past two days to Trump administration officials and WBD board members with anti-trust concerns over a Netflix purchase of WBD, saying it would be a step toward a monopoly among streamers. Paramount also had concerns with Comcast buying WBD because of its MS Now (formerly MSNBC) cable news channel and WBD having CNN, even though both NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery were planning to spin-off their cable channels to separate cable network companies.

    David Ellison, Paramount’s owner, has repeatedly pushed a so-called regulatory advantage the company would have over any other potential buyer due to the Ellisons close relationship with the Trump administration. Ellison’s father Larry is an ally of Trump and a major campaign donor. Paramount’s sale to Ellison’s Skydance company was completed after Ellison encouraged Paramount to pay a $16 million “settlement” to Trump over a CBS News interview with Kamala Harris that Trump has falsely claimed was edited in a deceptive manner.

    Netflix’s offer was mostly cash but included some loans, according to Bloomberg and Lightshed Management Partners.

    Sources told SEScoops the sale is far from over. There would likely be dozens of court challenges, not just at the federal level, but by other states who have concerns over the sale as well as unions and others in the media industry.

    Netflix, which said it wasn’t interested in the “merger game” just a couple months ago, became an interested buyer due to new strategic changes at YouTube, one source told SEScoops. While Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streamers command billions of minutes in viewing, YouTube remains by far the dominant streamer in the world, eating up the vast majority of viewing by streaming app watchers.

    According to Lightshed Partners, Paramount saw WBD as an opportunity to step up against Netflix and Prime, adding the power of two major studios together, two massive film and TV histories and collections. Comcast saw a WBD deal as a step to get into a better competitive posture against Disney.

    Paramount’s own bid became more of a regulatory hassle after partnering with the Apollo Group private equity firm and several Mid Eastern dictatorship sovereign investment funds like the Saudi PIF.

    While international companies have bought larger and larger chunks of major American businesses, it’s unclear how regulators and and business leaders would react to Middle Eastern governments being major owners of a massive American media company during a time of mergers and buyouts.

    Paramount’s other possible concern is Apollo Group, which is already a local broadcast owner and bought Cox Media Group in 2019, The company owns several large local CBS affiliates, including WSB-TV in Atlanta, one of the largest local TV stations and ABC affiliates in the country. Apollo was also had interest in purchasing CNN from WBD late last year before the company announced its streaming and network split.

    Comcast was said to have made a mostly stock offer to WBD and would have been closer to a merger than an overall purchase.

    Comcast was interested in purchasing WBD’s streaming and movie studio assets. Netflix was interested in WBD’s massive library dating back a century. Paramount wanted to purchase both WBD’s streaming and network assets.

    Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw said a caveat in the Netflix deal would allow WBD to continue driving films to movie theaters, a model Netflix execs recently called out-dated, despite WBD raking in billions in 2025 with one of the most successful film slates in years.

    How a Netflix-owned WBD would affect AEW remains up in the air. Netflix isn’t interested in the cable networks TNT and TBS, which air AEW television. It’s most likely Netflix would absorb HBO Max into the Netflix streaming app, but how that would affect AEW TV also remains unclear as AEW has been a part of HBO Max for the last year and recently allowing pay-per-view purchased for AEW, something the company developed specifically for AEW.

    Comcast announced on Thursday it would complete its spin-off of Versant in January. WBD was expected to complete its spin-off of Warner Bros. Streaming and Studios from Discovery Networks by spring next year.

    Discovery Networks is expected to continue building its own TNT Sports app. While Zaslav has said sports has continued to be a down performer for HBO Max, the company has plans to put a sports DTC app available after WBD finished its split in spring 2026.

    The earliest any merger would be completed, would be late 2026, according to the trade publication Puck.

  • Warner Bros. Discovery Receives Second-Round Bids From Paramount, Comcast, Netflix

    Paramount makes $25 per share offer with cash from the Saudis, Qatar, Abu Dhabi; Netflix and Comcast still in play

    Warner Bros. Discovery received second bids from Paramount, Comcast and Netflix on Monday as the potential buyers compete for the studio which owns TBS, TNT, HBO Max and hosts All-Elite Wrestling.

    Paramount continued to bid for both the studio and streaming division and the cable division, which are expected to spin into separate companies early in 2026. Netflix and Comcast have bid only for the studios and streaming.

    According to reports from several reporters at Bloomberg, Paramount’s second bid was all-cash and included funding from three Middle Eastern countries – Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

    https://media.sescoops.com/uploads/2025/12/\"Warner
    WBD

    Variety reported the three countries involved in Paramount’s all-cash bid on Nov. 16. Paramount, in a statement to the trade publication, said the report was “categorically inaccurate.”

    Charles Gasparino of the New York Post reported private equity fund Apollo Group was also part of Paramount’s “improved” second competitive bid of $25 per share.

    Netflix and Comcast also made second bids, putting the numbers together during the Thanksgiving weekend.

    Netflix’s second offer was mostly cash, according to Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg. The company would take a loan to complete its purchase. Bloomberg had no report of what consisted of Comcast’s offer.

    Reports from earlier this year said WBD CEO David Zaslav expected at least $70 billion in a potential purchase. Paramount had made at least three all-cash attempts to buy WBD before the company opened to a bidding process last month. One attempt included Zaslav staying as co-chair.

    Ellison has been heavily criticized since taking over Paramount. The company paid $16 million to the Trump administration in a settlement and added Bari Weiss, a center-right columnist, as the head of CBS News. Ellison’s father Larry, owner of Oracle, is a friend of President Trump, which is one reason analysts believe Paramount is the favorite in the competition because of a friendlier regulatory road. Sources have told SEScoops that Comcast would be the likely winner in a bid.

    Ellison came under fire for saying he would merge the HBO Max streaming app under Paramount Plus. Paramount also lost Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, but the famed screenwriter will helm a Paramount project based on the Call of Duty video game.

    Some analysts have criticized Ellison for the debt the company has compiled and his plan to make Paramount Plus into a competitor on the level of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Ellison paid $8 billion for Paramount then made a deal with TKO for all rights to Ultimate Fighting Championship for seven years for $7.7 billion.

    Several Hollywood unions have opposed a Warner Bros. merger, especially when companies continue to shed jobs. Paramount has laid off 14,000 workers this year.

    Both Ellisons were at a White House dinner two weeks ago which hosted Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which also included other tech billionaires Tim Cook of Apple and Michael Dell. U.S. companies continue to court money from Saudi Arabia despite the U.S. intelligence reports that Salman had knowledge of the killing of American resident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

    Director James Cameron heavily criticized Netflix’s interest in WBD due to statements from company president Ted Sarandos that it couldn’t make “cinema work” in a short-lived attempt at putting its films in theaters.

    According to Deadline, the bids are binding and WBD could split-off to negotiate with one suitor over the other two.

    A WBD merger with another major media company would greatly affect the pro wrestling television landscape, which is already in tumult due to the fall-off of cable TV and changes in ratings from Nielsen.

    Pro wrestling viewership has consistently rated lower since Nielsen switched to its Big Panel Plus system last fall. Streaming numbers will be added in January 2026. WWE PLE viewership has been down on its first shows on the new ESPN Unlimited app, which was just released at the beginning of football season and is still gaining a subscriber base.

    World Wrestling Entertainment is coming to the end of its first year of a five-year deal with Netflix for Raw. UFC will debut this month on Paramount Plus, while WWE Smackdown airs on USA Network and NXT on CW. ESPN is airing WWE PPVs while Peacock has a deal for quarterly Saturday Night’s Main Event shows. AEW is at the end of the first year of its three-year deal with WBD to air on TNT, TBS and HBO Max. WBD has an option for a fourth year.

    If a sale occurs, the buyer would be WBD’s fourth owner in the last decade.