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Entertainment Executive Believes AEW Needs To Be On
A Streaming Platform - May 9, 2022
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By
Marco Rovere
During
the latest episode of Strictly
Business with Eric Bischoff, NBCUniversal Business
Affairs Manager Mik Pandit joined the show to talk
about the future of streaming in the wrestling business
and the advantages AEW would have if they chose to
land on HBO Max. Pandit mentioned whether or not AEW
is currently making the right move staying on TBS/TNT
and whether they should get to a streaming platform
as soon as possible.
“I
don’t think AEW though has maximized their ceiling
domestically yet,” Pandit said. “To the
point to where they need to start looking internationally.
“There’s
a large portion of the American audience for whom
is under the age of 25, a very very important demographic,
who if you are not streaming your content, might as
well not exist. To me, while I understand there are
partnership concerns with AEW, they just got a deal
with Warner a couple of years ago and want that to
be a healthy long term partnership and it might not
look so great to say ‘hey, appreciate everything
you’ve done for us, but we’re going to sell
this other show to Paramount.’ I think it’s
pretty bad that they’re not currently, in 2022,
able to be consumed on a streaming network, and the
only place you can find their content is on cable
television.”
When
All Elite Wrestling was first announced back in 2019,
many debated where the show would land on either a
streaming platform or linear television. Ultimately
AEW landed a deal with TNT, but Mik Pandit revealed
whether that was the right move or not. The NBCUniversal
Executive also mentioned one thing that Nick Khan
and Vince McMahon are doing that AEW isn’t doing
right now.
“I
think that the value that you derive and the money
you can get from being on a streaming platform is
directly related to the amount of people that you
can bring with your content and sustain and stay on
that platform,” Pandit said. “So I don’t
think Tony made the wrong decision by going to linear,
in three years look how much has changed. I would
say everyone says TV is dying, it’s going to
be gone soon but I find that we’re going to hit
a point where there is a floor to cable subscriptions.
I don’t think TV, linear television, will ever
go away because, for a certain segment of our population,
that’s just such a convenient way to consume
content. Some of the content that people care the
most about is still only on those platforms. For all
we talk about streaming, the only place to watch the
NBA Playoffs is on linear television, the only place
to watch streaming CNN, FOX, or MSNBC is on linear
television. Those are two things people really really
care about.
“I
think the healthiest way to look at it is to do what
Vince and Nick Khan have done is you say we’re
going to have our product on broadcast, we’re
going to have it on cable, we’re going to have
it on streaming, we’re going to have it on next
day. You have to go where the consumers currently
are and I think that’s what makes the most sense
for AEW and I think that is what their big challenge
is now. There’s such a big audience of potential
wrestling fans who do not have cable television and
don’t watch it and are consuming AEW content
by looking for it on YouTube but if it were available
say on an HBO Max or Paramount or another streaming
service, they would go there.”
Pandit
also noted that a streaming deal could ultimately
lead to fewer people watch the product live on linear
television.
“If
something is only available on cable television, then
people have to have cable television to watch it but
if you’re telling me that show is going to be
available within 24 hours on a streaming service and
it’s only going to cost me $10 a month, why am
I going to spend $135-$150 bucks a month to watch
it on linear television?” Pandit said. “Why
is the network going to pay me an exorbitant amount
of money for that show if they know that it’s
not going to bring as many eyeballs because people
are just going to watch it on streaming. That’s
kind of the needle that needs to be a thread. People
get paid a lot of money to answer that question, I
don’t have the answer to that question.”
Sources
WrestlingInc.com
Strictly
Business with Eric Bischoff
News
AEW
vs WWE friendly wrestling war continues
Vince
McMahon (WWE)
vs Tony
Khan (All
Elite Wrestling)
Eric
Bischoff (right). Former boss of World Championship
Wrestling. Has appeared on both AEW and WWE television
in recent years.
The
Miz corrects Cody Rhodes: WWE Title is not a belt,
Superstars are not wrestlers
(WrestlingNews.co)
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By
Angel Rodriguez
The
Miz kicked off WWE Monday night Raw with Cody Rhodes
as his guest.
Cody
talked about being away for the past 6 years and being
a different person and he said that he plans on eventually
winning the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
belt. Miz corrected him and said that it’s a
“title” and not a “belt” because
a belt holds your pants up.
Miz
said he knows where Cody has been for 6 years and
he won’t allow Cody to embarrass him. Miz also
said that he’s heard that Seth Rollins wants
a rematch. Miz also told Miz that “wrestlers”
are referred to as “Superstars.”
The
segment ended with Cody sidestepping Miz’s attempt
at a sneak attack. They will wrestle each other later
in the show.
*click
here for full article and multimedia
(WrestlingNews.co)
News AEW Dynamite tops one million viewers for TBS
debut
The
show featured Page vs. Danielson II, the TBS tournament
finals, and more.
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BY PAUL FONTAINE
AEW
Dynamite's TBS debut averaged 1,010,000 viewers on
Wednesday night, up 3.6 percent from the final episode
on TNT. It’s just the second time since October
6 that the show has topped one million viewers.
In
the 18-49 demo, Dynamite drew a 0.43 rating, up 16.2
percent from last week. That’s the show's best
number in the demo since September 29.
This
is also the first week that Dynamite aired live on
the West Coast since October 6.
Dynamite
finished
second on the cable charts in 18-49, trailing
only an NBA game on ESPN that averaged 1.7 million
viewers and drew a 0.53 in 18-49.
The
show was up in every age group with the exception
of people over 50. In that category, Dynamite was
down 2.8 percent from the previous week.
The
biggest increase, by far, was in the 18-34 age group,
where the week-to-week jump was 79 percent.
The
show also increased more with women than with men.
In the 18-49 age group, women were up 20 percent and
men were up 10 percent. In 12-34, the difference was
even more dramatic. Females in that demo doubled last
week's number, while males were up 45 percent.
As
compared to this week last year, when Dynamite aired
head-to-head with NXT New Year's Evil and also against
news coverage of the United States Capitol insurrection,
Dynamite was up 52.6 percent in overall viewers and
up 72 percent in the demo.
Listed
below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership
and 18-49 demo numbers for Dynamite. The debut show
on TBS was up 8.7 percent in viewers and up 22.9 percent
in 18-49 from the 10-week averages prior to this week.
*click
here for full article
(Wrestling
Observer / Fgure Four Online)
Media
Man
News
As
noted, the controversy surrounding Tony Khan and Big
Swole was a hot topic this weekend. It began with
an episode of Big Swole’s “Swole World”
show that aired on Call-In. During the episode, the
former AEW star pointed to a lack of diversity in
the top spots of the company as one of the leading
factors in her departure in 2021.
Tony
Khan responded in a single tweet, pointed to how other
people of color have succeeded in AEW, and then said
he let Swole’s contract expire because her wrestling
wasn’t good enough.
“The
top 2 @AEW execs are brown (me & Megha)!! Jade,
Bowens, Caster, Dante, Nyla, Isiah & Marq Quen
all won on tv this month. The TBS Title Tournament
has been very diverse. I let Swole’s contract
expire as I felt her wrestling wasn’t good enough.
#AEWRampage Street Fight TONIGHT!,” he
wrote.
Swole
continued to retweet posts throughout the day yesterday,
but it wasn’t until this morning that she finally
posted a tweet of her own. In it, she implored the
wrestling community to listen intently to her podcast
because she believes her words are being misunderstood.
“It’s
Sunday, take time to actually listen to the podcast
instead of reading headlines and excerpts. Understand
diversity isn’t just a statistic, counting us/POC
isn’t the mindset,” she writes. “Not
one time did I ever mention anyone as racist. Comprehension
is key.”
One
AEW star that quickly reacted to the situation in
frustration was Lio Rush, who demanded that Tony Khan
apologize for his statement to Big Swole. But since
that transpired, it looks as though Rush had a heart-to-heart
with Tony Khan and has more optimism toward their
process.
“I
want this to be clear… I do not consider this
to be a diversity issue, and I at no point have thought
or said that AEW or Tony is racist,” Lio Rush
writes. “We can all clearly see that wrestling
as a whole and the AEW roster is perpetually diverse.
The issue at hand was a racial insensitivity issue.
“Having
spoken to Tony and Megah, we have discussed the endeavors
to further understand the struggles of the black community.
I am grateful to be able to understand more about
Tony and Megah’s own ethnic backgrounds and glad
that they are actively seeking input from an African
American perspective. I am proud to work for a boss
and company that try to make these strides in social
equality,” Rush continues. “I look forward
to working with Tony to keep making steps towards
positive change. I pray that 2022 is a year of positive
change in all aspects. Happy New Year and GOD BLESS.
#BeTheChange”
Other
AEW stars like Powerhouse Hobbs, Jade Cargill, &
Shawn Dean also made statements concerning this ordeal.
You can see their various statements at
this link.
You
can see the full tweets below:
*click
here for full article
(WrestlingINC)
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