Potentially 'significant' twist in AEW TV negotiations

A recent Wall Street Journal story has revealed that “Comcast’s NBCUniversal is prepared to pay an average of about $2.5 billion a year to air a package of NBA games.”
The story also states that Warner Bros Discovery is “making last-ditch efforts to keep those rights” according to WSJ’s sources.
The negotiations between the NBA and WBD were previously reported as a “higher priority” to the network with negotiations for AEW’s broadcast deal to take place afterwards.

Dave Meltzer has now explored the impact of the NBA potentially moved off the AEW broadcaster on Wrestling Observer Radio, saying:
“It’s a really hard one to answer. On one hand, you would make the argument that if WBD loses the NBA that it would need AEW more because they don’t have the NBA and they need programming which draws ratings.
“On the other hand, their carriage fees for TNT would probably go way, way down so their revenue would go way, way down.

“You could make the argument that they would have far less money to spend and that’s not good for AEW. At the same time when you say that they’d have far less money to spend, the reality is if you take the NBA rights that they’re already paying away – even though they’d have less money gross coming in – they would probably have way more money to spend.
“As a station, it would greatly downgrade TNT losing the NBA, their overall standing would go way, way down.
“However this NBA thing turns out, and it’s not looking good, at this moment for TNT retaining the NBA, it does have a pretty significant effect on the negotiations with AEW in multiple ways.”

Meltzer has previously described 2024 as “the most important year” for AEW, noting that the “contracts that they negotiate between now and September/October/November, whenever the deals are done, is the most important deals in the history” of the company.
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