Behind the broadcast with WWE
Posted on Apr 14, 2025 by FEED Staff
Battle of the streamers
January 2025 marked the game-changing launch of WWE on Netflix. FEED takes you behind the broadcast of the electrifying world of wrestling, exploring what this bold move means for the future of sports streaming
Words by Oliver Webb
Founded on 7 January 1953 as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, WWE has undergone many name changes since its inauguration. From the World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1963, to the World Wrestling Federation in 1979, it finally settled on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002 – having to rebrand itself after losing out on a lawsuit to the World Wildlife Fund. Since then, WWE has promoted four brands: Raw, Smackdown, NXT – and, in March of this year, Evolve was revived. Today, WWE is the world’s largest wrestling promotion, featuring scripted storylines, carefully choreographed matches and a blend of sports and entertainment.
Streaming giants double down
On 6 January earlier this year, WWE premiered on Netflix, marking Monday Night Raw’s shift to the streaming service giant. Triple H kicked off the affair with an unveiling of the new era. The event saw Rhea Ripley reclaim the Women’s World Championship with her impressive win over Liv Morgan, Roman Reigns toppling Solo Sikoa in a Tribal Combat match, CM Punk besting Seth Rollins in a highly anticipated match and Jey Uso securing a win over Drew McIntyre. It also featured appearances from Hulk Hogan, The Rock and The Undertaker, as well as introducing John Cena’s farewell tour. The live event took place at a sold-out Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, setting a company record as the highest-grossing WWE arena event of all time. Additionally, the show set a merchandise sales record, becoming the highest-grossing non-premium live event of all time.
Having previously aired on USA Network, a traditional television channel, Raw has left linear television for the first time since its inception in 1993. Netflix officially became the exclusive home of Raw in the US, Canada, the UK and Latin America, with more countries to be added in due course. The streaming giant will also be the permanent home for all other WWE programming, including Smackdown, Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, as well as all forthcoming projects and WWE documentaries.
Reports from Netflix and WWE indicate that Raw’s debut on the streaming platform drew 4.9 million live views globally, with an average of 2.6 million households tuning in from the US. This marks roughly a 116% increase from Raw’s 2024 US average of 1.2 million households and the highest viewership for any Raw broadcast in the past five years. As soon as the event began, it was also the trending topic on X in the US, Brazil, Australia and UK.
With more than 1600 episodes to date, Raw is one of the most iconic shows in sports entertainment, delivering action 52 weeks a year. Blending scripted content with unpredictable live entertainment, the three-hour show famously launched the careers of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, Triple H, John Cena and many more.
Previous to the deal with the streaming giants, the rights to Smackdown had been sold to NBCUniversal and USA Network in a five-year, $1.4 billion deal. Mark Shapiro, president and COO of WWE’s parent company TKO Group, called the new Netflix deal ‘transformative’, adding that it marries WWE’s unmissable content with Netflix’s extraordinary global reach while securing significant and predictable revenue for many years. “Our partnership fundamentally alters and strengthens the media landscape, dramatically expands the reach of WWE and brings weekly live appointment viewing to Netflix,” he said in a Netflix news announcement.
The TKO Group currently boasts more than a billion fans worldwide, reaching viewers in 180 countries and producing over 350 annual live events. With Netflix acquiring the rights, it solidifies its move into live streaming, following Amazon’s 2023 ten-year deal for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football. Peacock, Warner Bros Discovery, Max and Amazon Prime Video all have the rights to hundreds of games from top sports leagues, including the English Premier League, the NBA and NFL. Netflix previously streamed two NFL games on Christmas Day 2024, as well as hosting the record-breaking boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson in November 2024. The boxing event was one of the most-streamed sporting events in history, with over 108 million viewers tuning in worldwide. The streaming service has also hosted a number of other live events, including Chris Rock: Selective Outrage in March 2023 and the 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria expressed excitement over the new WWE partnership, pointing to WWE’s large fanbase as one of the major advantages. “By combining our reach, recommendations and fandom with WWE, we’ll be able to deliver more joy and value for their audiences and our members. Raw is the best of sports entertainment, blending great characters and strong storytelling with live action 52 weeks a year, and we’re thrilled to be in this long-term partnership with WWE,” Bajaria announced via Netflix earlier this year.
Did you know?
The WWE Championship is widely recognised as the most historic championship in WWE. It was first awarded to Buddy Rogers in 1963 after defeating Antonino Rocca in the finals. Since that time, the biggest names in the business have held the title, including Andre the Giant, Bret Hart, The Rock and Steve Austin. The current holder at the time of writing is Cody Rhodes.
Tech ready to rumble
Capturing a weekly show of this scale is no easy feat, especially with larger audiences than ever before. Last year, TKO launched The Studios at WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut – a 30,040 sq ft production facility equipped with five studios and a virtual production stage built in collaboration with Abelcine and Meptik. It features latest-generation tech from Sony Electronics and Disguise. With WWE venturing into VP, the studios have enabled WWE to tell more dynamic stories. The facilities include a cyclorama, two production control rooms, two live audio rooms, robotic camera control, two playback rooms, editing suites, seven post-audio suites, two green rooms, dressing rooms and office space. WWE is also the first US facility to install Sony’s Crystal LED Verona, applying a total of 158 cabinets across its main wall and auxiliary carts.
The next-gen production stage is powered by Disguise. Three VX 4+ and three RX II media servers and Renderstream were chosen for their playback performance and flexibility to power content of any size, format and complexity, providing WWE with the creative freedom to deliver truly engaging storytelling.
“Bringing a VP stage into The Studios at WWE was a smart move,” explains Alexander Smith, creative technologist at Disguise. “It gives their team the flexibility to create content faster while unlocking endless creative possibilities. They’ve already put it to good use, including a shoot for a promo video for WWE Raw, currently streaming on Netflix.
“Working with the WWE team has been an amazing experience. Their creativity, ambition and drive to push boundaries made this collaboration both exciting and rewarding. It’s been great to see WWE fully embrace VP – quickly mastering the workflow and already putting it to work in their productions. We’re proud to be part of their journey as they continue to evolve their storytelling.”
Creative Technology was responsible for delivering WWE events across multiple countries last year for the WWE King and Queen of the Ring 2024. The set-up included 700 sq m of Infiled IL-RSS-ORART4.6 LED screens, which were strategically placed throughout the arena, ensuring that every member of the audience had a clear view of the action. Creative Technology also deployed 60 sq m of Infiled ART3.91 LED screens. In addition to utilising new LED screens and VP, WWE has relied on drones to help capture unique shots throughout the Raw series. A drone show was also produced in Los Angeles ahead of the Netflix premiere to promote the ongoing partnership.
Sounding it out
Act Entertainment is the exclusive North American distributor of PK Sound products, which were installed in the lobby of the WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut for private events in the atrium.
“Owing to the patented multi-axis robotics of the PK Sound T10 robotic line array, the system’s acoustic coverage is precisely tailored to the atrium’s architecture to maximise clarity and consistency, augmenting its expansive LED video system to deliver the energy and excitement of a sold-out WWE stadium bout,” says Shawn Wells, market manager for sound, Act Entertainment.
A new chapter for sports?
Beyond its star-studded participants, WWE is probably best known for its vast and dedicated fanbase. Netflix saw this as an opportunity to start its segue into sports content, locking in devoted fans of the sport who would follow it anywhere – at any price. Further to this, by blending live events and digital exclusives on platforms available to audiences worldwide, it opens the scope to new audiences and younger generations by making the content more accessible.
Though it is still undeniable that the demand for sports content across linear and streaming channels will remain both colossal and on an upward growth trend, WWE’s move to Netflix provides a small glimpse of what’s to come for the future of sports broadcasting.
We will no doubt be seeing more shifts towards sports partnerships with streaming platforms, though the competition remains fierce.
WWE president Nick Khan and chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque discussed the WWE’s continuing evolution at the NAB Show 2025. Read about what this entailed here.
This feature was first published in the Spring 2025 issue of FEED.
