FOX’s Rupert Murdoch: USA Network “Embarrassed” By WWE Product

The Hollywood Reporter’s Marisa Guthrie has a very good inside look at WWE’s TV negotiations. The story references the pitch meeting to Stephanie McMahon and Triple H from Fox Sports. It was noted that NBCUniversal was expecting to keep both Raw and Smackdown Live with a new 10-year deal worth $360 million. However, things changed when Fox entered the picture.
The Fox deal for Smackdown, said to be for $1.025 billion over 5 years, is not finalized but it is expected to close soon, according to the story.
The story also notes that Peter Rice, chairman and CEO of Fox Networks Group was at the meeting alongside Fox Sports executives Eric Shanks and Larry Jones and Ruper Murdoch. CEO Lachlan Murdoch was part of the meeting via phone. In addition to Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, co-presidents Michelle Wilson and George Barrios and CAA’s Nick Khan and Alan Gold were present as well.

Murdoch reportedly insisted that NBCUniversal was “embarrassed by your product” and Fox would fully embrace WWE with promos airing across Fox programming every night of the week and a studio show on FS1. Fox offered promo time during NFL pre-game shows and there was talk of a Smackdown replay on Saturdays on FS1.
“We could not sell UFC” at Fox, a former staffer THR. “And wrestling is family friendly. If you have wrestling you can find cash. I think it’s a big win for Fox; it’s a great trade-off.”
As previously noted, Raw will stay on the USA Network and Smackdown is expected to move to Friday nights on Fox. There’s no word yet on if this means that Smackdown will be taped or if it will stay as a live show every week. It is widely assumed that Smackdown would become the “A” show since it would be generating more revenue from Fox than Raw will be getting from USA.
The THR story is a great read. You can read it by clicking here.