Although WWE premium live events are moving from Peacock to ESPN’s streaming service next year, it will reportedly not impact the deal between WWE and NBCUniversal for SmackDown.
According to CNBC’s Alex Sherman, the NBCUniversal agreement runs until 2029, and SmackDown will continue to air Fridays on USA Network with the episodes then being available for consumption on Peacock after the fact.
In September 2023, WWE announced a five-year agreement with NBCUniversal for SmackDown to air on USA Network starting in October 2024.
USA Network had been the home of Raw for the majority of its existence since 1993, but when WWE struck a deal with Netflix for the exclusive streaming rights of Raw, NBCUniversal remained in the fold by making the move from Raw to SmackDown.
Since 2021, NBCUniversal’s Peacock has been the exclusive streaming home of WWE premium live events in the United States, but that will change starting next year.
On Wednesday, WWE and ESPN announced that ESPN’s upcoming streaming service will be the exclusive domestic home of WWE PLEs beginning in 2026.
Per Sherman, the deal between WWE and ESPN is worth $325 million annually over five years.
Along with WWE PLEs, Peacock has been the home of WWE’s video library since 2021, and it isn’t yet clear if that will continue to be the case.
The library was not mentioned as part of WWE’s deal with ESPN, which suggests it could either continue to exist on Peacock, move to a different streaming service or perhaps even become part of WWE’s YouTube channels.