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>The potential Disney-WWE partnership makes some sense due to connections, as well.
>ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro leads sports acquisitions for Disney. This is important because WWE recently joined forces with Endeavor. WWE’s CEO Nick Khan has a strong relationship with Pitaro and ESPN president of content, Burke Magnus, while Endeavor’s leaders, Ari Emmanuel and Mark Shapiro, already have a bond with ESPN over its UFC deal.
>Besides FX, the biggest new player could be Amazon Prime Video.
>Amazon Prime Video will be in talks for WWE, and you can see how it fits in their strategy. They have shown a willingness to pay for big, standalone events. The biggest, of course, is “Thursday Night Football” for a billion dollars a year. It’s exclusive and brings in an audience that exceeded 10 million streamers in some weeks. Amazon tried to pair Big Ten Football on Saturday nights with it, but lost out to NBC.
>Takeaway: Fox and USA want to keep WWE, but Disney and Amazon could each make a strong run at it. That is where things stand, but it is still early.
