Netflix Steps Into Live Entertainment Arena With WWE’s RAW

Netflix (NFLX) and WWE parent TKO Group Holdings (TKO) announced Tuesday morning that RAW, WWE’s flagship weekly wrestling program, will join the streaming platform at the beginning of 2025. The news, which came ahead of Netflix reporting fourth-quarter earnings after the market close today, sent TKO shares sharply higher.

The agreement will bring the television series off linear television for the first time in its 31-year history. Currently airing on USA Network, RAW draws 17.5 million annual viewers and is “one of television’s best performing shows” among viewers between the ages of 18 and 49.

While the specific terms and duration of the “long-term partnership” weren’t disclosed, TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro called the deal, “transformative.” Beginning next year, Netflix will be the exclusive home of Raw in the U.S., and the home for all WWE specials and programming outside of the U.S. The agreement will also make WWE’s past and future documentaries and original series available on Netflix.

Following Netflix’s first live sports event, The Netflix Cup, last year, the WWE deal is the latest salvo in Netflix’s push into sports and beyond scripted content. That’s partially about bringing in new viewers and partially about mitigating the potential future impact of work stoppages. While Raw is partially scripted, WWE writers are not part of the Writer’s Guild of America, sparing the show from a hiatus during the 2023 strike. Considering the detrimental impact of the strike on Netflix’s competitors, the move should reassure investors as to the partnership’s resilience in the face of future labor headwinds.

It’s also part of a push by Netflix to move away from original content and back towards third-party licensing. Speaking with CNBC last week, Bank of America Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich said that while the streamer’s TV series continue to perform well, its recent acquisitions in film have been “amazing.”

“Their engagement is really strong and they dominate most of the streaming charts,” Ehrlich said on The Exchange.

The Netflix partnership isn’t the only big news for WWE and TKO Group Holdings today: the company also announced that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, movie star and former WWE wrestler, would be joining the TKO board, as will Brad Keywell, founder and executive chairman of Uptake Technologies.

TKO shares were up 13% at $87.65 around 2:15 p.m. ET. Netflix stock was up 0.8% at $489.42.