Conflicting reports on AEW paying for TV Time with TNT

There are a lot of conflicting reports coming out for AEW’s TV Deal in last 24 hours.

Earlier in the month, AEW Commentator and Senior Advisor, Jim Ross has told that AEW is very close to signing a deal with a major TV network and will start broadcasting from October. Later came the news that Turner Media and Showtime Network are the two parties with whom AEW is currently discussing. Turner’s TNT was said to be preferred destination with online streaming going to Turner’s website Bleacher Report. Now a few new details have come out and some more have come to deny any of those.

  • Tony Maglio of The Wrap spoke to the 411 Wrestling Podcast and said that according to people he’s spoken to, they’ll be buying their TV time, essentially, in all likelihood. AEW has all the hype around it but they are still “unproven.”
  • Maglio also said that he expected that it won’t be a three-hour show and that a one-hour show could make more sense.

“My understanding based on the people I’ve spoken to is that it would be more AEW paying for its time on TNT than Turner paying AEW for its show. Another very good wrestling reporter and I had been talking about whether that would be the case or whether it would be a revenue share, and we’d both heard rumblings and talked to people. Maybe a couple of months ago it might have been a little bit of a different story. But the truth is, when you’re talking to Turner, [they’re] a very well-established, very well-off company inside of gigantic parent company…it’s not the UFC. It’s not WWE, it’s not MLB. They have MLB, they have NBA. They know what they have to pay for. And I think currently, AEW has way more to prove than Turner has in terms of trying to get them to come to their networks. I think AEW needs this deal more than Turner does.”

  • Dave Meltzer denied the report completely on the F4 Online message board that “One hour is false. Time buy is false. It’s the exact opposite.” He further said that people are offering tons of money both for weekly live programming and also to get their streaming services starting for sports rights for companies like Bellator, UFC on ESPN and Matchroom.
  • Meltzer also noted that one of the reasons that the deal has yet to be signed is multiple bidders for the company’s show.
  • The Voices of Wrestling Twitter account said that they have checked with two sources regarding time buys and the answer was no.
  • Tony Maglio also defended his statement by saying that he stated whatever he got from ‘the source.’
https://twitter.com/TonyMaglio/status/1119044463542906883

We will keep you updated over the developments here on itnwwe.com.

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