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>During the latest episode of Strictly Business with Eric Bischoff, Universal Studios Group Business Affairs Manager Mik Pandit joined the show to talk about the future of streaming in wrestling. Pandit spoke from his personal perspective and not as a representative of the company. To start the podcast, Mik gave some insight into what he does at NBCUniversal and talked about his experience as an independent wrestler.
>“I have a unique background, I’ve been in the wrestling business as an independent wrestler for 14 years or so and during that time I’ve been able to do some consulting and evaluation work for WWE,” Pandit said. “Aside from that, I’ve been an attorney in New York and right now I work in business affairs at NBCUniversal, for those of you who don’t know what that means, it means I’m a really small part of a very smart experienced dedicated group of executives who work to make the deals with actors, directors, authors, and streaming companies to get a lot of the shows that you like to your TV.”
>On a previous episode of the podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about All Elite Wrestling’s failure to grow an audience, talking about their viewership having flatlined at a million a week. Fast forward to this week’s episode and Mik Pandit described why AEW benefits from having that viewership every week, noting it’s a positive for potential streaming platform deals.
>“I think that is a huge advantage for them,” Pandit said. “This is not revealing anything internal but NBCU Executives have been very clear with how pleased they are with the WWE’s drive of subscribers to the Peacock platform. Part of the advantage for WWE is there are new events each month, yes but then two, arguably three or four times a year, they have these big events. Your WrestleManias, the upcoming supershow in the UK, Saudi events that drive consumers who might not have been subscribed to say I have to watch this.
>“I have a unique background, I’ve been in the wrestling business as an independent wrestler for 14 years or so and during that time I’ve been able to do some consulting and evaluation work for WWE,” Pandit said. “Aside from that, I’ve been an attorney in New York and right now I work in business affairs at NBCUniversal, for those of you who don’t know what that means, it means I’m a really small part of a very smart experienced dedicated group of executives who work to make the deals with actors, directors, authors, and streaming companies to get a lot of the shows that you like to your TV.”
>On a previous episode of the podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about All Elite Wrestling’s failure to grow an audience, talking about their viewership having flatlined at a million a week. Fast forward to this week’s episode and Mik Pandit described why AEW benefits from having that viewership every week, noting it’s a positive for potential streaming platform deals.
>“I think that is a huge advantage for them,” Pandit said. “This is not revealing anything internal but NBCU Executives have been very clear with how pleased they are with the WWE’s drive of subscribers to the Peacock platform. Part of the advantage for WWE is there are new events each month, yes but then two, arguably three or four times a year, they have these big events. Your WrestleManias, the upcoming supershow in the UK, Saudi events that drive consumers who might not have been subscribed to say I have to watch this.
