All-Elite Wrestling\'s television and streaming deals are likely to be unaffected by the upcoming split of Warner Bros. Discovery and its streaming and television properties, sources told SEScoops.com on Monday.
Variety and several other publications reported WBD would be splitting its HBO MAX streaming from its television properties by mid-2026. WBD Streaming and Studios would be headed by current WBD CEO David Zaslav. A second company, comprising of WBD\'s television properties, would be re-named WBD Global Networks and led by WBD CFO Gunnar Widenfels.
AEW signed a three-year deal with WBD for its programming on TNT, TBS and the HBO MAX streaming network last fall. The deal, which was reported first by SEScoops, is for around $175 million to $200 million per year. WBD had an option to extend the contract to a fourth year.
AEW Dynamite and Collision were added to the HBO MAX streaming in January, where Dynamite over the first several months of the year was averaging around 500,000 viewers in the Live + 1 metric with a deviation of positive/negative 10-20 percent per week. We first reported the streaming numbers in an exclusive report earlier this year.
A source familiar with the AEW and WBD contracts said the wrestling company would likely be unaffected by the split.
WBD was shopping the venerable news network CNN for sale earlier this year. Potential buyers included several local TV broadcast companies. A split of WBD\'s streaming and cable assets was expected to take place later. The current split keeps CNN aligned with the current WBD cable properties such as TNT, TBS, TruTV and Discovery.
According to Variety, most of WBD\'s $37 billion in debt would live with WBD Global Properties when the split occurs.
