Netflix insists WWE partnership has surpassed their expectations
In January, the streaming giant launched its landmark $5 billion deal with the professional wrestling company which saw Monday Night Raw join the platform all around the world, while SmackDown and premium live events like WrestleMania and SummerSlam air on the streamer outside the US.
Reflecting on the deal almost eight months in, Gabe Spitzer, vice president of sports at Netflix, told Variety: 'It's everything we could have hoped for and more.
'We knew going in that we're not going to change WWE. It was more, how can we add to it in small ways, and that's what we've seen so far.'
On July 7, Raw was in Netflix's global Top 10 for the 27th week in a row.
That show alone has average around 6.3 million hours viewer per week, and just over three million views, with a view classified as the total hours viewers divided by its run time.
Paul 'Triple H' Levesque - former WWE wrestler and now the company's chief content officer - has also been delighted with the partnership.
He said: "Netflix has been amazing, in every sense of the word. They are phenomenal partners. 'And we can't say enough about WWE fans. They've shown up in full force, as passionate and engaged as ever.'
Spitzer noted how previously, WWE had a more "fragmented" arrangement with various TV deals around the world.
He explained: "[WWE's] distribution has been pretty fragmented up to this point, and the hope was 'Let's combine the power of what you guys do with the power of what we do with our global distribution, and get our marketing teams together … and try to lift this."
That's still the case for US fans, with SmackDown airing on USA and NXT on The CW, while the PLEs are available on Peacock stateside.
There has been some talk that Netflix could also get the rights to the PLEs when WWE's Peacock deal expires in March 2026.
Spitzer teased: 'For us, it's still early stages. We want things that are going to create global conversation.
"And I think with WWE, we already know they have that… So we'll continue to have conversations with the leagues that have rights coming up.'
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