NBCUniversal Peacock’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform has reached a contract for exclusive rights to World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. content, the two companies said.
The terms of the agreement have not been published. Someone familiar with the deal said it will run for five years and is worth more than $ 1 billion.
Under the agreement, WWE will close its WWE Network streaming service in the United States in mid-March, and Peacock will approve the program, including the popular franchise “WrestleMania” , for his own platform.
The decline of WWE Network highlights the challenges of launching and maintaining a successful streaming platform, even for a popular brand such as the WWE. Last year, the Quibi short program streaming service closed with huge funding after just a few months online. They have sold their programming rights to Roku Inc., which puts that content on its streaming media service.
For Peacock, the addition of WWE content will provide an opportunity to expand the service’s application, which was launched in July and has 26 million signatures.