Tony Khan Set to Earn Millions From New TV Deal Despite Losing Ratings Battle to Triple H

Tony Khan usually amassed brickbats from the wrestling community for his alleged boneheaded decisions and poor luck. However, for once, he has landed on the reverse side of the norm. Despite a massive change occurring with AEW’s broadcasting partner, it could prove to be a boon for Tony Khan amidst the AEW’s diminishing ratings.

AEW‘s broadcast partner Warner Brothers Discovery has lost NBA media rights to NBC. WB did put a lot of effort into retaining the rights till the last. While it could emerge as a terrible loss for WB and AEW, a recent analysis from Fightful portrayed the change in a completely different light.

Will AEW get a financial edge with WBD losing the rights to the NBA?  

It was almost evident that TNT, the sub-group of WBD would lose the game with The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand revealing last week that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has said they don’t need the NBA at all. Now, with the deal reportedly edging closer, it’s expected that the network’s revenues could go down. Moreover, this could end up affecting their business equation with the Jacksonville-based company in the long run. But if we twist our view a bit, there can be a counterargument that WBD will have more money and attention to vest on AEW since it emerges as a top priority now. Going with this stance, a Fightful agent explained how AEW would receive a significant amount of screen time, implying greater money if the missed rights result positively and conceivably.

”I don’t think it would be a negative for AEW at all for WBD to no longer be selling out all that money for also two premium nights. Now it wouldn’t be good for WBD because they’re losing one of their biggest shows. The NBA on TNT is a big deal. But that opens up on Thursday nights and I guarantee you AEW wishes that they had a three-hour block of Collision and Rampage on Thursday as opposed to the one hour on Friday and two hours on Saturday.”

”With those death slots I guarantee it and also that’s more money to spread around to AEW, that would be WBD looking to retain some key programming unless they decided to go in some completely different direction which would be surprising to me. I think it would be good for AEW but you know necessarily not great for WBD” the Fightful journalist noted on the recent media analysis.

However, Khan’s luck concerning the decline in ratings continues.

AEW continues to be on the back foot in the ratings war

A month back, when two respective big cards, AEW Dynasty, and a unique AEW Dynamite episode aired on TV, it was expected to bring a lot of eyeballs to Khan’s promotion. Of course, the hope didn’t emerge out of nowhere. That eventful AEW week saw Jack Perry and Adam Cole’s massive returns. Particularly on Dynamite, Khan’s injury angle was a cherry on the cake and expected to fetch fortunes. But in reality, it turned out all of these efforts Khan went in vain as the ratings didn’t reflect the success they had hoped to garner. The number hardly crossed 683,000, which was the lowest the company has seen to date. And it hasn’t improved much ever since.

On the other hand, WWE really enjoyed the privilege of stellar ratings throughout the WrestleMania session and afterward. Now, it has to be seen how Khan will deal with these current contradictory themes of his business going forward. What’s your take on the seemingly good effect of WBD’s important media right loss on Tony Khan and AEW? Let us know in the comments.