— All Elite Wrestling and Warner Bros Discovery announced their new media rights agreement that will keep AEW programming on WBD properties for the next few years. The Sports Business Journal has more details on the agreement in an article that was released today.
— While both sides declined to share financial details about their new deal, sources say that it is a three-year agreement with an option for a fourth year. It is believed that the deal is valued at $170M per year, which would include rights fees and other elements. Interestingly, the article noted that the deal includes WBD keeping its equity stake in AEW but the size of that stake was not disclosed. AEW President Tony Khan had previously been adamant that he would always have majority interest and voting power in his company.
— The story added that from AEW’s side, Activist Founding Partner Bernie Cahill – among others – helped negotiate the deal among many others. From WBD’s side, CEO David Zaslav and others on their senior leadership ship helped spearhead the agreement with guidance from Kathleen Finch, WBD Chair and CEO of US Networks along with Jason Sarlanis (President of TNT, TBS and other entities) and Sam Linsky (Associate GM and SVP within TNT and TBS).
