The growth of WWE NXT in the last few years has been truly remarkable. From having no deal and just airing on the WWE Network to getting a small deal of $15 million a year with the USA Network. And finally after a decade plus, NXT will have its own broadcast network with the CW Network. This is a huge deal for NXT and it proves that WWE sees this as a proper third brand now. All the 3 brands in WWE will be on separate TV networks in the United States.
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Let’s talk about the move of NXT to the CW Network.
WWE NXT has gone big time
WWE NXT is finally becoming a proper third brand of WWE. WWE Raw and SmackDown had been on TV networks before and NXT was just a secondary promotion in the USA Network with only $15 million a year. This was nowhere what NXT deserved. Now from October 2024, WWE NXT will air on the CW Network and the WWE will get In the range of $35-37 million a year. This represents an increase of more than double than the previous rights. The CW Network is famous for the Arrow verse and shows such as The Flash and Green Arrow. NXT will most likely continue to air on Tuesdays which will be ideal because the fans have gotten used to watching NXT on Tuesdays.
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WWE NXT has been a brand in WWE for more than 10 years now and at the start It was just a developmental brand where the superstars of tomorrow are created and the likes of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Bayley, Drew McIntyre all have come through NXT. 5 years ago NXT starred airing on the USA Network and since then it has been doing well. The best period for the brand is now under the leadership of Shawn Michaels when the average viewership of the brand is between 700,000-7,50,000 viewers every week. Shawn Michaels has been a creative genius and the fans who had stopped watching NXT are once again starting to watch it again for the likes of Carmelo Hayes, Bron Breakker, Trick Williams, Roxanne Perez, Tiffany Straton, The Creed Brothers. They will be the superstars of tomorrow.
The growth of WWE NXT has to be studied because in 10 years from just being a developmental brand to now getting almost $40 million a year is a significant improvement. NXT will get around $175 million in the 5 years that it will be with the CW Network. TKO CEO Ari Emmanuel said that the rights saw an increase of 70%. WWE SmackDown has moved back to the USA Network from next October at a valuation of $1.4 Billion and that is an increase of 40%. The rights deal of Raw are left and there are a lot of interested parties in the fray such as WBD, Fox Sports, Amazon. WWE is taking its time in finalizing the deal for Raw. The NXT Superstars must be elated that their hard work is being paid millions to WWE and due to this increase in TV rights the amount the NXT superstars get will be much more as well. This is a big win-win for all parties involved.
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